Henri Dubois · Endurance Correspondent
Victor Martins set the fastest valid time in third practice in the #36 Alpine. The stewards deleted Nick Cassidy’s quicker lap because of low tyre pressure.
The third and final free practice session for the 6 Hours of Monza began at 10:30 on Saturday morning in conditions that had little to do with a season finale at the Temple of Speed: an air temperature of 8 to 9 degrees, barely more than 10 degrees on the asphalt and a track that was still wet after the rain overnight and in the early morning. Only towards the end of the hour did the racing line dry enough for lap times to fall noticeably. When the chequered flag came out, Nick Cassidy initially sat on top in the #93 Peugeot 9X8 with a 1:42.706. That time does not stand, however: the stewards subsequently deleted every lap the Peugeot had completed from lap 26 onwards. That puts Victor Martins at the head of the session, having taken the #36 Alpine A424 to a 1:42.746 on his final lap. Robert Kubica follows 0.093 seconds back in the #83 Ferrari 499P of AF Corse, while Antonio Fuoco completes the top three in the #50 factory Ferrari, 0.330 seconds off the pace.
Not enough pressure, two times gone
The deletion was based on a report from the Technical Delegate: on its final laps, the #93 Peugeot had been running with front tyre pressures below the minimum set by the tyre manufacturer. Laps 26 to 29 were therefore deleted, including the fastest lap of the session. The same fate befell the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Team WRT, which lost laps 21 to 29 and with them the 1:43.052 that had initially put Sheldon van der Linde fourth. Neither decision is subject to appeal. Cassidy’s best remaining time of 1:43.922 is good enough for tenth, while the #20 drops to 16th with a 1:45.148. The final classification published in the afternoon still lists the deleted times; the order in this report follows the stewards’ decisions and the official lap analysis without the deleted laps.
Kubica had set the benchmark for long stretches of the session and drove the entire hour on his own, which on a wet, constantly changing track allowed a calm, methodical approach to the limit. Behind the Ferrari pair came Daniel Juncadella in the #19 Genesis (plus 0.587) and Charles Milesi in the second Alpine, the #35 (plus 0.606). How little the timesheet from this morning reveals about the real balance of power is shown by a glance at the clock: Martins set his best time on his final lap, as the track got faster with every tour. Four Hypercars completed 32 laps, more than anyone else, and with one exception every car in the class managed at least 25.
The exception was the #51 Ferrari of Ferrari AF Corse. Alessandro Pier Guidi returned to the pits after six laps, where the car remained for 47 minutes. Dailysportscar and Sportscar365 both report a problem with the braking system, with Sportscar365 specifying a fault in the interplay between the brake-by-wire system and the ECU. Shortly before the end, Pier Guidi went out once more for a single lap; with seven laps and a 1:48.941, the #51 finished last in the Hypercar class.
At 10:41 there was contact at the Parabolica, officially Turn 11, between Kubica and Tom Gamble in the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie. Gamble tried to pass the Ferrari on the approach to the corner, understeered slightly and hit the #83, sending both cars into a spin. The stewards held Gamble predominantly responsible and handed the #007 a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, while taking into account as a mitigating factor that Kubica had been travelling particularly slowly on the approach. Lap times were also deleted for speeding in the pit lane: Sébastien Bourdais in the #38 Cadillac was clocked at 67.01 km/h and fined 800 euros, and Eric Powell in the #77 LMGT3 Ford of Proton Competition at 72.94 km/h, fined 1,300 euros. Neither car’s best time was affected, as both had been set by team-mates.
No yardstick for Toyota
For the two crews who will decide the drivers’ title between themselves on Sunday, this session was no yardstick. Toyota found both TR010 Hybrids in the lower half of the Hypercar field: Kamui Kobayashi put the #7 eighth with a 1:43.850, 1.104 seconds behind Martins, while Ryo Hirakawa set the 15th-fastest time in the #8 with a 1:44.982, 2.236 seconds adrift. The #8 crew of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Hirakawa heads into the finale with 114 points and a 17-point lead over the sister car. On a drying track, where a single lap at the right moment decides the order, a deficit of just over two seconds says little about form over six hours.
LMGT3: Ferrari on top, title favourite Edgar fourth
In LMGT3, Alessio Rovera set the fastest time in the #21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo of Vista AF Corse with a 1:56.069. Behind him came the two Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMGs, Maxime Martin in the #61 0.282 seconds back and Lin Hodenius in the #79 0.373 back. Jonny Edgar, who leads the drivers’ standings with 92 points ahead of his team-mate Nicky Catsburg, took the #33 Corvette of TF Sport to fourth, 0.483 seconds behind Rovera. Parker Thompson completed the top five in the #69 BMW M4 of Team WRT.
The #92 Porsche of The Bend Manthey, first chaser of TF Sport in the teams’ standings with 74 points, finished the session only 16th in class, but with 29 laps it shared the highest mileage of all LMGT3 cars with the #88 Proton Ford. That points to a programme focused on the race rather than a hunt for a quick lap. At the bottom of the class was the #34 Corvette of Racing Team Turkey by TF: Peter Dempsey spun at the Ascari chicane in the final five minutes and briefly came to a stop on track. The stewards looked into how he rejoined under double waved yellow flags, but judged it safe and took no further action.
How little the times from this cool, damp morning revealed about the pecking order became clear that same afternoon: in qualifying, Antonio Fuoco put the #50 Ferrari on pole, while both Toyotas missed out on Hyperpole. On Sunday at 11:00, it will no longer be about one quick lap, but about the work over six hours.
