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ALPINE PREVAIL IN WEC THRILLER

By Dan McCarthy

In what was one of the best FIA World Endurance Championship races in many, many years the Alpine trio of Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre beat home a pair of Toyotas in Monza.

Many people tuned in to watch the factory Peugeot 9X8’s make their debut, and while it was a tough weekend for the brand you could not take you eyes off the fight for the lead.

Throughout the entire six hours the two Toyotas were locked in a battle with the sole Alpine.

The Toyotas were incredibly fast on the straight, while the nimble and light Alpine gained its speed in the turns.

In the end the Alpine trio clinched the win by just 2.782s over the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.

One of the crucial moments of the race came in the fifth hour when Vaxiviere and Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota were duelling for the lead on the main straight at 300 kph.

Kobayashi tried to squeeze Vaxiviere on the straight but the Alpine driver didn’t budge. They made contact which saw the Toyota suffer a puncture and damage bodywork and forced the Japanese driver to limp back to the pits.

That disappointment was compounded by a 90-second stop/go penalty for the incident, which ensured it slipped back to a third placed finish.

It gave the Alpine a relatively clear run to the chequered flag although Vaxiviere had to watch his mirrors carefully as Ryo Hirakawa mounted a late charge for the lead, but it was not enough.

The Glickenhaus Racing team took pole by nearly a second and dominated the first half of the race, however a drive-through penalty for a full course yellow violation dropped the car to fourth.

They still had the pace to claw the lost time and take the win however a rare turbo problem forced them to retire.

On debut the pair of Peugeots showed pace strong enough to keep with Toyotas, Alpine and Glickenhaus but lacked reliability.

Loic Duval, James Rossiter and Gustavo Menezes finished fourth in class many laps down, while the sister #93 9X8 driven by Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Paul di Resta stopped in the first hour and was eventually retired.

A pair of Peugeot 9X8s debuted at Monza

Corvette pulled off an incredible strategy to steel the GTE Pro class win from Ferrari in from of a disappointed Italian crowd.

Ferrari on track for a win at home made a splash and dash with two laps to go and fell behind the sole Corvette of Nick Tandy.

Tandy had been lapping slowly throughout the final stint and this was because the Englishman was saving fuel.

Rather than completing a splash and dash he converted his fuel and stedily drove the car to a surprising but fully deserved victory.

The #52 Ferrari duo of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco came home a disappointed second ahead of the #51 sister car wich rounded out the podium.

Realteam by WRT celebrated its first ever LMP2 victory as Ferdinand Habsburg, Rui Andrade and Norman Nato jumped the #38 JOTA car of Will Stevens, Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez at the final scheduled stop.

With fresher tyres Habsburg was able to open up a decisive gap to ensure a popular victory for the Swiss entered squad.

After dominating the Pro Am LMP2 class at Le Mans, Australian James Allen prevailed once again with his teammates Rene Binder and Steven Thomas. In doing so the trio have taken the class lead.

Aussie James Allen won the LMP2 Pro Am Championship

Their championship rivals AF Corse picked up a penalty for causing a collision with a GTE Am Ferrari and finished in third.

In GTE Am the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche took the win with Harry Tincknell behind the wheel, he denied the pole winning Iron Dames Ferrari trio of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey.

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