Kobayashi claimed the top spot in qualifying by just over one hundredth of a second aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar, in a closely fought session in which the top three cars were separated by a tenth.
A 1m35.358s from Kobayashi compared with Fuoco’s 1m35.375s in the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH, while Brendon Hartley was just behind on a 1m35.480s in the second of the Toyotas.
Peugeot driver Jean-Eric Vergne was a further two tenths behind courtesy of 1m35.662s, which left him only three tenths off the pace in the fastest of the French manufacturer’s 9X8 LMHs.
Alex Lynn took fifth for Cadillac with a 1m35.720s aboard the Ganassi-run V-Series.R LMDh.
He was run close by the second of the AF Corse-run factory Ferraris, which posted a 1m35.771s in Antonio Giovinazzi’s hands.
Gustavo Menezes took seventh in the second Peugeot, while Frederic Makowiecki was the fastest Porsche 963 LMDh driver in eighth.
The top nine cars in Hypercar down to Yifei Ye in the Jota Porsche were all within one second at the end of the 15-minute session.
WRT driver Robert Kubica took a first WEC pole position in LMP2.
He set two laps good enough for the top spot in class aboard his ORECA-Gibson 07, ending up on a 1m39.354s.
That was an improvement of three tenths on his previous lap, giving him the pole by nearly four tenths.
Pietro Fittipaldi took second position in his Jota ORECA with a 1m39.707s, while Phil Hanson made a late improvement to jump to third with a 1m39.790s in the best of the United Autosports entries.
Gabriel Aubry ended up fourth in Vector Sport’s ORECA by just one hundredth of a second from Albert Costa in the Le Mans-winning Inter Europol entry.
Sarah Bovy took her second GTE Am pole position of the season for the all-female Iron Dames Porsche squad.
A 1m47.632s gave her the top spot in the Iron Lynx-run Porsche 911 RSR by four tenths over Ahmad Al Harthy, who got down to a 1m48.058s in the ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
Christian Ried was less than a tenth further back in third position aboard the solo Dempsey-Proton Porsche .
The Monza 6 Hours, round five of the 2023 WEC, begins at 12:30 local time on Sunday.
WEC Monza 6 Hours - Qualifying results
Hypercar
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |
 Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'35.358 | ||
| 2 | 50 |
 Antonio Fuoco  Miguel Molina  Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 499P | HYPERCAR | 1'35.375 | 0.017 | 0.017 |
| 3 | 8 |
 Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'35.460 | 0.102 | 0.085 |
| 4 | 93 |
Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen  Jean-Eric Vergne |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'35.662 | 0.304 | 0.202 |
| 5 | 2 |
Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook |
Cadillac V-Series.R | HYPERCAR | 1'35.720 | 0.362 | 0.058 |
| 6 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi |
Ferrari 499P | HYPERCAR | 1'35.771 | 0.413 | 0.051 |
| 7 | 94 |
Loic Duval  Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'35.780 | 0.422 | 0.009 |
| 8 | 5 |
Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 1'35.973 | 0.615 | 0.193 |
| 9 | 38 |
 Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens  Ye Yifei |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 1'36.188 | 0.830 | 0.215 |
| 10 | 6 |
Kevin Estre  Andre Lotterer  Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 1'36.497 | 1.139 | 0.309 |
| 11 | 708 |
Romain Dumas Olivier Pla Nathanael Berthon |
Glickenhaus 007 | HYPERCAR | 1'36.614 | 1.256 | 0.117 |
| 12 | 99 |
Gianmaria Bruni Harry Tincknell Neel Jani |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | HYPERCAR | 1'36.668 | 1.310 | 0.054 |
| 13 | 4 |
Esteban Guerrieri Tristan Vautier JP De |
Vanwall Vandervell 680 | HYPERCAR | 1'38.089 | 2.731 | 1.421 |
| View full results | |||||||
LMP2
| Cla | # | Drivers | Class | Avg Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 41 |
Rui Andrade  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz
|
LMP2 | 1'39.354 | ||
| 2 | 28 |
David Heinemeier Hansson  Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen
|
LMP2 | 1'39.707 | 0.353 | 0.353 |
| 3 | 22 |
Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Ben Hanley
|
LMP2 | 1'39.790 | 0.436 | 0.083 |
| 4 | 10 |
 Ryan Cullen  Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry
|
LMP2 | 1'39.887 | 0.533 | 0.097 |
| 5 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa
|
LMP2 | 1'39.894 | 0.540 | 0.007 |
| 6 | 31 |
 Sean Gelael  Ferdinand Habsburg  Robin Frijns
|
LMP2 | 1'39.957 | 0.603 | 0.063 |
| 7 | 63 |
Doriane Pin Mathias Beche  Daniil Kvyat
|
LMP2 | 1'39.976 | 0.622 | 0.019 |
| 8 | 35 |
Andre Negrao  Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell
|
LMP2 | 1'40.061 | 0.707 | 0.085 |
| 9 | 36 |
Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi
|
LMP2 | 1'40.214 | 0.860 | 0.153 |
| 10 | 9 |
 Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli
|
LMP2 | 1'40.340 | 0.986 | 0.126 |
| 11 | 23 |
Josh Pierson Giedo van der Garde Oliver Jarvis
|
LMP2 | 1'40.379 | 1.025 | 0.039 |
| View full results | ||||||
GTE
| Cla | Drivers | Class | Avg Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey
|
LMGTE AM | 1'47.632 | ||
| 2 |
Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.058 | 0.426 | 0.426 |
| 3 |
Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.116 | 0.484 | 0.058 |
| 4 |
Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.221 | 0.589 | 0.105 |
| 5 |
Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.464 | 0.832 | 0.243 |
| 6 |
Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.519 | 0.887 | 0.055 |
| 7 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.599 | 0.967 | 0.080 |
| 8 |
Julien Piguet Simon Mann Ulysse De Pauw
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.713 | 1.081 | 0.114 |
| 9 |
Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Kei Cozzolino
|
LMGTE AM | 1'48.962 | 1.330 | 0.249 |
| 10 |
Guilherme Oliveira Efrin Castro Matteo Cairoli
|
LMGTE AM | 1'49.232 | 1.600 | 0.270 |
| 11 |
Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii
|
LMGTE AM | 1'49.509 | 1.877 | 0.277 |
| 12 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello
|
LMGTE AM | 1'49.883 | 2.251 | 0.374 |
| View full results | |||||
