Monza WEC: Toyota fastest in opening practice

Jose Maria Lopez set what proved to be the fastest time of 1m38.401s early on in the one hour, 45 minute session at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

That was enough to edge out the sister #8 car of Brendon Hartley by 0.134s.

What was originally planned to be a 90-minute session, the WEC's first official running at the track since the 2017 Prologue pre-season test, was extended by 15 minutes owing to a red flag at the 33-minute mark, caused by the Roberto Lacorte suffering a crash in the Cetilar Racing Ferrari.

After action resumed, the Signatech-run Alpine A480-Gibson set its fastest time of 1m38.553s in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre to move up to third ahead of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs.

Both Glickenhaus cars were within seven tenths of the pace, with Romain Dumas setting the American marque's fastest time of 1m39.042s aboard the #709 car inside the first 10 minutes of the session - briefly going fastest overall before both Toyotas improved.

Olivier Pla set the quickest time in the #708 Glickenhaus, just four hundredths behind Dumas.

United Autosports led the way in the LMP2 class, with the returning Filipe Albuquerque - absent from the previous round at Portimao owing to an IMSA clash - going fastest on a 1m39.373s in the team's #22 Oreca 07-Gibson.

That was a little under half a second up on the time set by Nyck de Vries for Racing Team Nederland, which has lost two of its regular drivers, Job van Uitert and Giedo van der Garde, for this weekend due to positive COVID-19 tests.

Ben Hanley put DragonSpeed third-fastest, another two tenths back, ahead of the fourth-placed WRT car and the two JOTA entries.

Risi Competizione was 10th-fastest in its first session running its new Oreca, with Oliver Jarvis setting the team's best time of 1m40.996s to go 10th-fastest in the 12-car class.

Ferrari led the way in GTE Pro as its two AF Corse-run factory entries beat the two works Porsches.

Miguel Molina led in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo on a 1m46.329s, nearly four tenths up on the #51 entry of James Calado, while Neel Jani was third-fastest in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

Porsche did however set the pace in GTE Am thanks to a last-ditch effort of 1m47.194s by Riccardo Pera in the #56 Project 1 car, knocking ex-Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari off the top of the times.

Watch Sunday's WEC action from Monza unfold on motorsport.tv – click here.

Session results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'38.401
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'38.535	0.134
3	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'38.553	0.152
4	709	Romain Dumas Franck Mailleux Richard Westbrook	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	1'39.042	0.641
5	708	Pipo Derani Gustavo Menezes Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	1'39.085	0.684
6	22	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'39.373	0.972
7	29	Frits van Eerd Paul-Loup Chatin Nyck de Vries	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'39.837	1.436
8	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.075	1.674
9	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.101	1.700
10	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.148	1.747
11	70	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.277	1.876
12	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.400	1.999
13	34	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.669	2.268
14	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.911	2.510
15	82	Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'40.996	2.595
16	20	Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'41.093	2.692
17	44	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Matej Konopka	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	1'43.191	4.790
18	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'46.329	7.928
19	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'46.700	8.299
20	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'46.895	8.494
21	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'46.983	8.582
22	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'47.194	8.793
23	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'47.388	8.987
24	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'47.479	9.078
25	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'47.599	9.198
26	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'47.640	9.239
27	71	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'47.700	9.299
28	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'47.754	9.353
29	88	Andrew Haryanto Marco Seefried Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'47.962	9.561
30	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'47.985	9.584
31	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'48.048	9.647
32	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'48.238	9.837
33	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'48.310	9.909
34	388	Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'48.665	10.264
35	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'48.700	10.299
36	61	Christoph Ulrich Simon Mann Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'48.834	10.433
37	46	Dennis Olsen Anders Buchardt Maxwell Root	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'49.682	11.281
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