Antonio Fuoco claimed a home pole position for Ferrari during qualifying for the World Endurance Championship finale at Monza on Saturday afternoon. Driving the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar, the Italian driver set the pace across both quick-fire sessions in cold weather conditions.
Qualifying Highlights and Top Finishes
Fuoco clocked a lap time of 1m33.364s during the final 10-minute Hyperpole session, which featured the 10 fastest cars from the opening qualifier. This effort narrowly edged out Mathieu Jaminet, who managed a 1m33.460s in the #19 Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar, falling short by just under one hundredth of a second.
Reflecting on his performance, Motorsport.com reported that Fuoco said: “It is very special to be on pole at Monza and I am very happy because the car was mega today. The conditions were very tricky and the guys did an amazing job to put the car down on the track with an amazing baseline.”
Prior to qualifying, all three practice sessions had been wet except for the final minutes of FP3 on Friday, making Saturday’s sessions the first true dry running for the WEC field. Earl Bamber secured third place for the Jota Cadillac team with a 1m33.541s in the #38 Caddy V-Series.R LMDh, finishing a further hundredth behind the Genesis. Antonio Giovinazzi took fourth for the factory Ferrari squad in the #51 entry with a time of 1m33.573s.
Theo Pourchaire rounded out the top five for Peugeot in the #94 9X8 LMH with a 1m33.617s, closely followed by Victor Martins in sixth aboard the #36 Alpine A424s. Norman Nato placed seventh in the Hyperpole for the #12 Jota Caddy, beating Robert Kubica in Ferrari’s satellite Hypercar entry by a few hundredths. Nick Cassidy in the #93 Peugeot and Sheldon van der Linde in the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh completed the top 10 positions.
Title Contenders and LMGT3 Class
Neither of the Toyota entries advanced into the Hyperpole session, despite being the sole cars still battling for the drivers’ championship heading into the final weekend. Ryo Hirakawa finished 15th in the first qualifying session for the championship-leading #8 Toyota HYBRID TR010 Le Mans Hypercar, immediately ahead of his teammate Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 car. Aston Martin also missed out on progression, with Marco Sorensen taking 12th in the #009 Valkyrie LMH and Harry Tincknell placing 14th in the #007 entry during the opening 12-minute session.
In the LMGT3 class, Lexus secured pole position in what marks the final race for the long-serving RC F GT3 before Toyota replaces it with the GR GT3 next season. Hadrien David took the top spot in the #76 Auto Sport Promotion Lexus during a closely contested Hyperpole session where the leading three cars were separated by just six hundredths of a second. David posted a 1m47.523s, narrowly beating LMGT3 points leader Jonny Edgar, who recorded a 1m47.537s in the #33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Ben Tuck followed closely in third with a 1m47.595s in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 Evo, while Eduardo Barrichello finished fourth in the #23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage after losing a faster lap time due to a track limits infraction.
The Monza 6 Hours is scheduled to start at 11:00 local time on Sunday.
