TOYOTA GAZOO Racing got back on track for the first time following the Le Mans 24 Hours with the opening practice sessions for the 6 Hours of Monza, the fifth round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.
The team made a productive start to practice for a pivotal weekend in the World Championship battle as it prepares to fight for its fourth victory of the season to strengthen its lead in the manufacturers’ and drivers’ standings.
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, in their #7 GR010 HYBRID, set the pace on day one in Italy with a lap of 1min 36.363secs to top the timing sheets by 0.170secs from the #50 Ferrari. World Championship leaders Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were third fastest in their #8 GR010 HYBRID, a further 0.153secs back.
“It’s been a smooth opening day, with no major issues on the cars,” commented Hartley. “It looks like it is very close at the top and it’s hard to predict at this stage who has the advantage for qualifying. It could be a fight between five different manufacturers.
“We will focus a bit on qualifying but obviously the bigger priority is the race and that will be an incredibly tight battle as well. We are working through our programme, testing things on set-up and the different tyre compounds. The week has started well.”
Competition was exceptionally close amongst the field of 13 Hypercars at the historic, high-speed Autodromo Nazionale Monza with less than a second separating the top eight.
Work to prepare the GR010 HYBRIDs for Sunday’s race began in earnest late on a warm summer morning, with a 90-minute first practice session. Both cars focused on comparing different aerodynamic and mechanical settings, as well as control systems, to establish baseline set-ups for the rest of the event.
With no repeat of the rain which hit the track on Thursday morning, the session proceeded cleanly until a red flag two minutes before the end. Mike’s early lap was the benchmark for the #7 car on its way to the fourth quickest time, while Sébastien set the best lap in the #8, which finished the session in sixth.
In the late afternoon session, both GR010 HYBRIDs focused on the two compounds of Michelin tyres available in Monza. As well as performance, the durability of the medium and hard compounds was also analysed on an afternoon when track temperatures came close to 50°C.
Early flying laps from Kamui and Brendon proved to be the best of the session for their respective cars, meaning the #7 was fastest in second practice and on the combined timesheets for the day, with the #8 in third.
After three hours of uninterrupted and trouble-free running on Friday, the team has substantial data to work with to optimise set-up around the 5.793km parkland circuit, where top speed and braking performance are key to fast lap times.
Saturday sees a final morning practice before the grid is decided in a 15-minute qualifying, which begins at 15.30 CEST for Hypercars. The Six Hours of Monza begins on Sunday at 12.30 CEST.
6 Hours of Monza – Free Practice 1
1st #51 Ferrari AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) 1min 37.533secs 35 laps
2nd #38 Hertz Team JOTA (Da Costa/Stevens/Ye) +0.003secs 37 laps
3rd #5 Porsche Penske (Cameron/Christensen/Makowiecki) +0.291secs 38 laps
4th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.308secs 38 laps
5th #708 Glickenhaus Racing (Dumas/Pla/Berthon) +0.384secs 42 laps
6th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.418secs 40 laps
6 Hours of Monza – Free Practice 2
1st #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 1min 36.363secs 45 laps
2nd #50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) +0.170secs 47 laps
3rd #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.323secs 46 laps
4th #2 Cadillac Racing (Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook) +0.385secs 48 laps
5th #5 Porsche Penske (Cameron/Christensen/Makowiecki) +0.628secs 37 laps
6th #99 Proton Competition (Bruni/Tincknell/Jani) +0.818secs 22 laps
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