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Toyota has won the 6 Hours of Monza from pole position.
The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid team of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, and Mike Conway held off the #50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen in front of 65,000 fans for Round 5 of the 2023 World Endurance Championship.
Jean-Eric Vergne, Paul di Resta, and Mikkel Jensen drove the #93 Peugeot 9X8 to its first prototype podium in WEC since 2011 at Zhuhai.
After starting from the pole, the #7 Toyota found itself in third place to the #93 Peugeot and the #50 Ferrari an hour into the race.
At the halfway mark, the Toyota took control and began to increase its lead in the third and fourth hours.
The Toyota was extending its lead until the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 stopped on the track in the fifth hour.
The ensuing Safety Car period allowed the #50 Ferrari to make things interesting.
Fuoco, in full attack mode behind the wheel of the Ferrari, cut the Toyota lead to ten seconds.
In response to the furious Ferrari charge, Toyota elected to make an off-sequence pit stop.
Kobayashi was able to fend off the assault and extended his lead over the Ferrari.
Kobayashi turned in the race’s fastest lap late in the race to secure Toyota’s third win of the season by 16.5s.
In contrast, the Hypercar points-leading #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa saw a disastrous start to their race.
Buemi was involved in two incidents in the opening minutes of the race.
The #51 Ferrari was the first victim of Buemi just 13 seconds into the race. The Ferrari was able to continue after being spun by the Toyota.
The second incident occurred when Buemi made contact with the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR that sent driver Satoshi Hoshino into the wall at Ascari.
As a result of the contact, the Toyota driver was handed a one-minute stop-and-hold penalty.
New Zealander Brendon Hartley battled back and passed the #51 Ferrari in a breathtaking move around the outside at Curva Grande.
Hartley then passed the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 late to secure fourth place for the #8 Toyota.
The #6 sister Porsche of Makowiecki, Dane Cameron, and Michael Christensen finished seventh.
The American #708 Glickenhaus squad came home eighth.
The #38 Hertz Team Porsche finished ninth, while New Zealander Earl Bamber’s #2 Cadillac V-Series. R finished tenth.
The #99 Proton Competition Porsche retired in its WEC debut.
The #28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson of Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen, and David Heinemeier Hansson claimed the LMP2 victory.
The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing 911 RSR-19 won GTE-AM.
The #33 Chevrolet Corvette team continued their dominant season. The C8.R of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating, and Nico Varrone clinched the GTE-Am championship with a fourth-place finish.
The American team showed pace from the beginning but was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane that ruined their chances of a win.
The #8 Toyota holds a 27-point lead over the #7 Toyota and the #51 Ferrari in Hypercar.
#41 Team WRT holds a 10-point lead over the #34 Inter -Europol team. In LMP2
WEC returns to the track 10 September for the 6 Hours of Fuji in Japan.
