Henri Dubois · Endurance Correspondent
The #38 Cadillac led at every hour mark and won by 5.607 seconds from Alpine. Toyota took the drivers’ title in 11th place, Jonny Edgar the LMGT3 crown in third.
With air temperatures between 11 and 14 degrees Celsius, Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken won the 6 Hours of Monza in the #38 Cadillac of Cadillac Hertz Team Jota. After 191 laps and 6:01:33.199 they finished 5.607 seconds ahead of the #36 Alpine of Jules Gounon and Victor Martins, with the #51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in third. It was Cadillac’s first win of the season, and the last race in the Hypercar class for Alpine Endurance Team. The titles were settled further down the timing screen: the crew of the #8 Toyota became world champions in 11th place.
Three drivers, three stints, in front at every hour mark
The #50 Ferrari started from pole, which Antonio Fuoco had taken on Saturday, with Miguel Molina at the wheel for the start. Daniel Juncadella went past him on the inside of the first chicane in the #19 Genesis, cut the corner in the process and was given a five-second penalty. Aitken, up from third on the grid, passed Molina on the opening lap and picked off Juncadella a few laps later on the approach to the Parabolica. From then on the #38 led, although it could not pull clear in the first two hours. The race’s seven neutralizations, four Virtual Safety Car periods and three Full Course Yellows, began early: Antares Au got stuck in the gravel in the #10 McLaren after avoiding contact between the #23 Aston Martin and the #79 Mercedes, and later Alexander West in the #58 McLaren hit Darren Leung’s #32 BMW at the first chicane. Both cars retired.
Early in the third hour, Paul-Loup Chatin parked the Genesis, second until then, at the exit of Ascari with a technical failure. During the neutralization that followed, Bourdais took over from Aitken after 67 laps and then had Sheldon van der Linde in the #20 BMW and Martins in the Alpine right behind him. Van der Linde passed Martins at the end of a Full Course Yellow, and in the fourth hour the picture changed again: Charles Milesi, who had earlier set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:34.400, crashed heavily in the second Alpine at the exit of the Parabolica. He was unhurt, but the car was badly damaged and retired. During this fourth Virtual Safety Car period Bamber climbed into the Cadillac, and at the restart Martins moved up on the inside of the BMW at the first chicane and held second to the finish. Bamber drove the last 86 laps himself. His lead was at times more than ten seconds, but it shrank at the end because he had to save fuel over the final laps.
Tire pressures cost Ferrari and Aston Martin positions
Low tire pressures were a theme throughout the race. The #50 Ferrari dropped to the back of the Hypercar class after two penalties and recovered to seventh, while the #83 AF Corse car received 20 seconds, later lost a wheel after a pit stop and came home eighth. Only the #51 stayed clear of any such sanction, and that paid off after the checkered flag. Tom Gamble had taken the #007 Aston Martin of Aston Martin THOR Team past the Peugeot into fourth with 25 minutes to go and also passed the Ferrari in the final quarter of an hour. Minutes after the race the car was given a 20-second penalty for tire pressure and dropped back to fourth, 1.305 seconds ahead of the Peugeot. A further investigation into its energy use is still open.
Fifth place gave the #94 Peugeot of Malthe Jakobsen, Loïc Duval and Théo Pourchaire the manufacturer’s best result of the season despite a clutch problem. Two minutes from the end, Jakobsen and Alex Lynn in the second Cadillac touched at the exit of the Roggia chicane. Lynn hit the barriers hard and was not classified. This incident is also being investigated after the race. The two BMWs, which had run in the top four at times, fell back late on: the #15 finished sixth, and Robin Frijns in the #20, on heavily worn tires, ran wide several times at Ascari and ended up ninth.
Toyota wins the world title without playing a part
For Toyota Racing, the only question left this Sunday was which of its two crews would take the drivers’ title. The manufacturers’ title had been decided in Barcelona, and the #7 would have needed second place to catch the #8. It was nowhere near that: neither TR010 Hybrid ever got close to the front, and both tangled with Pipo Derani’s #17 Genesis. At the finish the #8 of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa was 11th, one lap down, directly ahead of the #7 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, in what was Conway’s final race weekend. Neither car scored, so the 17-point margin stayed as it was. After 2022 and 2023, it is this trio’s third title together.
LMGT3: Lietz holds off Barrichello by 0.270 seconds
In the GT class the lead changed hands almost as often as the race was neutralized. Eric Powell passed polesitter Tom Van Rompuy’s #78 Lexus after five laps in the #77 Ford of Proton Competition, but later received two drive-through penalties for exceeding track limits. The #87 Lexus then led for around two hours, until Giammarco Levorato went by in the #88 Ford and Clemens Schmid had to stop the Lexus on track with a radiator punctured by debris. The fourth Virtual Safety Car period proved decisive: the #92 Porsche of The Bend Manthey and the #33 Corvette of TF Sport were the only two title contenders yet to pit, and they suddenly found themselves in front.
In the fifth hour Ben Tuck took the #77 Ford past the #92, but that chance ended when Sebastian Priaulx collided with the #7 Toyota and the Ford had to be repaired. That opened the way to victory for Richard Lietz, who shared the #92 with Riccardo Pera and Yasser Shahin and had absorbed a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane early in the race. It was his 100th WEC race, and he held off Eduardo Barrichello in the #23 Aston Martin of Heart of Racing Team by 0.270 seconds. The #33 Corvette finished third, and that was enough: Jonny Edgar, who needed at least sixth, is LMGT3 world champion, the first sole champion since Lietz in 2015. Ben Keating had dropped the car out of the points in the second hour with an infringement under the Virtual Safety Car, Edgar then worked his way back, and Nicky Catsburg brought third place home. TF Sport also took the teams’ title.
The classification is still provisional, and the investigations into the Aston Martin’s energy use and the Jakobsen and Lynn crash had not been concluded at the time of writing. None of that can change the titles: they went to the two crews who had built up their points over the season, while the finale belonged to a team that was in front at every hour mark.
Update (November 11): Once the investigations were complete, the stewards handed the #007 Aston Martin a further penalty for excessive energy use, dropping it to twelfth. The #50 Ferrari received an additional 20 seconds and is classified ninth. In the final classification the #8 Toyota is therefore tenth, scores one point and takes the title by 18 points.
