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Autosport
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Sport
Gary Watkins

WEC Monza: Kobayashi lands Toyota pole ahead of Ferrari

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.

#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

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 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'35.358    
2 50 Italy Antonio Fuoco
Spain Miguel Molina
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 1'35.375 0.017 0.017
3 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'35.460 0.102 0.085
4 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'35.662 0.304 0.202
5 2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 1'35.720 0.362 0.058
6 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 1'35.771 0.413 0.051
7 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'35.780 0.422 0.009
8 5 United States Dane Cameron
Denmark Michael Christensen
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'35.973 0.615 0.193
9 38 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
China Ye Yifei
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'36.188 0.830 0.215
10 6 France Kevin Estre
Germany Andre Lotterer
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'36.497 1.139 0.309
11 708 France Romain Dumas
France Olivier Pla
France Nathanael Berthon
Glickenhaus 007 HYPERCAR 1'36.614 1.256 0.117
12 99 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Switzerland Neel Jani
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 HYPERCAR 1'36.668 1.310 0.054
13 4 Argentina Esteban Guerrieri
France Tristan Vautier
JP De
Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 1'38.089 2.731 1.421

LMP2

GTE

Cla Drivers Class Avg Time Gap Interval
1 Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Switzerland Rahel Frey
LMGTE AM 1'47.632    
2 United Kingdom Ahmad Al Harthy
United States Michael Dinan
Ireland Charles Eastwood
LMGTE AM 1'48.058 0.426 0.426
3 Germany Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
France Julien Andlauer
LMGTE AM 1'48.116 0.484 0.058
4 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
France Lilou Wadoux
Italy Alessio Rovera
LMGTE AM 1'48.221 0.589 0.105
5 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
LMGTE AM 1'48.464 0.832 0.243
6 United States Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
LMGTE AM 1'48.519 0.887 0.055
7 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Davide Rigon
LMGTE AM 1'48.599 0.967 0.080
8 France Julien Piguet
France Simon Mann
Belgium Ulysse De Pauw
LMGTE AM 1'48.713 1.081 0.114
9 Japan Takeshi Kimura
United States Scott Huffaker
Japan Kei Cozzolino
LMGTE AM 1'48.962 1.330 0.249
10 Guilherme Oliveira
Efrin Castro
Italy Matteo Cairoli
LMGTE AM 1'49.232 1.600 0.270
11 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
United Kingdom Casper Stevenson
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
LMGTE AM 1'49.509 1.877 0.277
12 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Belgium Alessio Picariello
LMGTE AM 1'49.883 2.251 0.374
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