GLICKENHAUS TAKE MONZA WEC POLE, PEUGEOTS STRUGGLE ON DEBUT

Glickenhaus took pole position for the World Endurance Championship round in Monza while on debut the Peugeots did not deliver on the practice pace.

It was a short, sharp 10 minute session that came for an early end due to a red flag.

Impressively Romain Dumas took Glickenhaus’ second pole position of the season this time at the ‘Temple of Speed,’ Monza this evening.

In the #708 machine Dumas set a 1m35.416s lap taking pole by almost a second

Just seconds before the session ending red flag was thrown, Brendon Hartley put the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing car to second on the grid with a 1m 36.416s time.

Next came the sole Alpine making it three brands in the top three positions and only 0.154s off the pace of Hartley.

The second of the Toyotas with Kamui Kobayashi behind the wheel qualified in fourth while it was a disastrous qualifying session for the Peugeot’s on their return to world endurance competition.

Gustavo Menezes in the #94 Peugeot could only qualify fifth, 0.3s behind the second Toyota, while the other 9X8 failed to complete a lap.

The Peugeot 9X8 did not have a good debut qualifying session

In the end Mikkel Jensen was forced to stop the #93 9X8 on track at the Lesmos and was the cause of the late session red flag.

In the GTE Pro class, the tifosi rejoiced as AF Corse Ferrari scored pole position, with veteran Alessandro Pier Guidi edging out the Corvette driven by Nick Tandy.

Tandy left his lap to the last second, demoting the second Ferrari off the front row of the grid.

Tandy was 0.004s faster than the second Ferrari driven by Antonio Fuoco and only 0.054s away from pole. The two Porsche’s rounded out the five cars in class.

In LMP2 it was Filipe Albuquerque who claimed pole position for United Autosports, the #44 ARC Bratislava Pro Am car driven by Mathias Beche was second overall in class.

Aussie James Allen qualified the #45 Algarve car, he put it a very respectable fifth outright in LMP2 and third in Pro Am.

Notably in GTE Am Sarah Bovy wrote a little bit of history by becoming the first female driver to take a pole position in WEC.

She set a sensational lap in the Iron Lynx Ferrari to take the top spot ahead of Ben Keating’s TF Sport Aston Martin.

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