Henri Dubois · Endurance Correspondent
Three red flags in the morning, a late best time from Charles Milesi and, in the afternoon, a Robert Kubica who went almost eight seconds quicker. The first practice day of the WEC finale at Monza belonged to the weather.
With the track at eleven degrees and humidity above 90 percent, the last weekend of the season began on Friday morning, and for long stretches of both sessions at the 6 Hours of Monza the teams mainly learned how quickly a wet track changes. In the first session Charles Milesi set the benchmark of 1:45.862 shortly before the end in the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Alpine Endurance Team. In the afternoon Robert Kubica lapped the No. 83 Ferrari 499P of AF Corse in 1:38.143 on drying asphalt. Almost eight seconds separate the two, and more of that is weather than car performance.
First practice: three stoppages and a late finish
The 90 minutes barely got going. After just two minutes Antonio Fuoco stopped the No. 50 works Ferrari off the track at Parabolica at the end of his out lap, and the first red flag held the field for around seven minutes. Fuoco returned to the pits under his own power and did not lose much time. Around 35 minutes from the end Robin Frijns slid off at the exit of the Ascari chicane in the No. 20 BMW, causing the second stoppage. A good quarter of an hour later came the third: James Cottingham crashed the No. 91 Porsche of Manthey DK Engineering at the second Lesmo after contact with the No. 19 Genesis of Mathieu Jaminet. Race control placed the incident under investigation.
For a long time Kubica’s 1:47.738 from the first half of the session stood at the top, more than two seconds clear of the rest when he set it. Only in the final ten minutes, as the racing line visibly dried, did the times tumble. Milesi improved to 1:45.862 on his penultimate lap, and Yifei Ye brought the No. 83 to within 0.401 seconds after the chequered flag. Harry Tincknell in the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Aston Martin THOR Team and Victor Martins in the second Alpine, the No. 36, both set exactly 1:46.453. James Calado was fifth in the No. 51 Ferrari, and the No. 83 covered the most ground of the morning with 38 laps.
For the two Toyotas, who will settle the drivers’ title between them on Sunday, it was a quiet start. Ryo Hirakawa put the championship-leading No. 8 in eleventh, while the No. 7 finished 14th. Both BMWs ended the morning with their best times from the first half, and Frijns’ No. 20 completed 19 laps after its off.
Second practice: slicks in the closing stages, Kubica clearly ahead
The afternoon also began wet but ran without a red flag. It was interrupted only once, shortly before half-time, by a Full Course Yellow of around five minutes which, according to Sportscar365, was used for a systems check. In the final minutes the track dried enough for most of the field to switch to slicks, and as in the morning the decisive times came right at the end.
Kubica made the most of that window. His 1:38.143 was 0.796 seconds clear of Tincknell, who finished in the top three in both sessions. Raffaele Marciello put the No. 15 BMW of BMW M Team WRT third, ahead of Martins in the Alpine, Jaminet in the Genesis and Earl Bamber in the No. 38 Cadillac. Fuoco was seventh as the best works Ferrari, Théo Pourchaire eighth in the No. 94 Peugeot. Milesi, quickest in the morning, ended up tenth.
Toyota stayed outside the top ten in the afternoon as well. Hirakawa was twelfth in the No. 8, while Mike Conway, who is contesting his last race weekend at Monza, finished the session last in the Hypercar class in the No. 7. In changing conditions that only says so much: when a team switches to slicks and whether it still gets a final lap on fresh tyres decides more about the order in a session like this than the actual pace over a stint. The No. 12 Cadillac did the most laps, 47 in total, and was 16th on the timesheet.
LMGT3: McLaren in the morning, Ford in the afternoon
In the GT class Tom Fleming improved to 1:57.575 on his final flying lap in the No. 10 McLaren of Garage 59, 0.330 seconds ahead of Giammarco Levorato in the No. 88 Ford Mustang of Proton Competition. Third was Jonny Edgar in the No. 33 Corvette of TF Sport, who arrived at Monza as championship leader. His closest pursuer had a difficult morning: the No. 92 Porsche of The Bend Manthey spent most of the session in the garage with a drivetrain problem, and Richard Lietz managed only three laps in total.
In the afternoon Proton’s two Fords took over at the front. Sebastian Priaulx lapped the No. 77 in 1:50.352, with Logan Sargeant just 0.087 seconds behind in the No. 88. Maxime Martin put the No. 61 Mercedes-AMG of Iron Lynx third, ahead of Ayhancan Güven in the No. 91 Porsche, back on track after Cottingham’s crash in the morning, and the two Akkodis ASP Lexus. The No. 92 worked through its programme in the afternoon and finished ninth. The No. 33 Corvette, by contrast, ended up 17th, which says little about Sunday in a session whose order was decided by the timing of the tyre change.
What Saturday has to answer
Saturday begins at 10:30 local time with the third and final practice session over 60 minutes. In the afternoon LMGT3 qualifying runs at 14:20 and the Hyperpole at 14:40, with the Hypercars following at 15:00 and 15:20. The race starts on Sunday at 11:00.
After a Friday on which the track was never the same twice, the most important question remains open: how fast are the cars on dry asphalt over a full stint? Neither session gave a reliable answer. For Toyota, fighting for the same title with two crews, and for TF Sport with its lead in LMGT3, that need not be a disadvantage. Whoever is in front after six hours on Sunday will hardly owe it to this Friday’s best times.
