Cadillac Continues to Lead at Monza Halfway Point

The No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R continued to lead the 6 Hours of Monza as the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale reached its halfway point.

Jack Aitken had moved the Cadillac into the lead early in the first hour as the JOTA squad sought to extend its record of having won in every WEC season it had contested.

But, after handing over to Sebastien Bourdais, the Frenchman was under intense pressure from the No. 20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde as the clock hit three hours.

Aitken had continued to lead in the second hour but was never able to pull clear of Dani Juncadella aboard the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 that had occupied first place for the opening six laps.

The second round of pit stops for the Hypercar contenders were made during the second Virtual Safety Car of the race, this time caused when Alexander West’s No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo clattered into Darren Leung’s No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, which put both cars out of the race, although West had guided the crabbing McLaren back to the pits.

Aitken continued aboard the No. 38 Cadillac for a third stint while most squads elected to change drivers and he pulled clear of Paul-Loup Chatin, now aboard the Genesis, on the restart.

The No. 51 Ferrari 499P — the only one of the trio of Ferrari Hypercars not to receive a penalty for low tire pressures — vaulted up to third during these stops as James Calado remained aboard and did not change tires.

But Calado was not putting Chatin under any real pressure until the Genesis suddenly ground to a halt as the third hour began with what appeared to be a complete electrical shutdown.

This triggered a third VSC and, once again, the entire field decided to pit with Aitken now handing over to Bourdais.

A slower stop for the No. 51 Ferrari as Alessandro Pier Guidi climbed aboard meant the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A424 of Victor Martins and the No. 20 BMW climbed up to second and third.

Martins, who had already been aboard the Alpine for a stint, instantly put Bourdais under pressure when the track returned to green but the Cadillac driver was able to repel those attacks.

The Alpine took to the escape road at the Roggia chicane during one of these attempted passes as the BMW lingered ready to pounce.

And, sure enough, van der Linde was able to jump Martins after a brief Full-Course Yellow to retrieve a stranded LMGT3 car and grabbed second before putting Bourdais under threat.

The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 of Paul di Resta — who had been aboard from the start — was running in fourth at mid-distance with the No. 51 Ferrari falling to sixth behind the second Peugeot of Theo Pourchaire.

Neither of the Toyota TR010 Hybrids have been a factor in the race but the No. 8 machine of Brendon Hartley remained on course to take the drivers’ title with him running tenth with Nyck de Vries 12th in the sister car.

A flurry of penalties had shuffled the LMGT3 order but it was the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO that had been the first to be sanctioned inside the opening hour for exceeding maximum power that led at halfway.

The sister No. 77 car of Eric Powell had led in the early laps before falling behind the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 and then picked up two drive-through penalties for Powell’s repeated track-limits abuses.

But the next raft of penalties had consequences for the title battle as both the No. 78 Lexus that started on pole and the points-leading No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ben Keating were given drive-throughs for VSC infringements, which dropped them both outside of the points.

The No. 87 Lexus continued to lead as Petru Umbrarescu handed over to Clemens Schmid but Giammarco Levorato was on a charge after the third VSC as he passed both the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Zacharie Robichon and then Schmid within one lap.

Robichon was then struck by Peter Dempsey aboard the No. 34 Corvette that is in title contention with a very optimistic move from the Irishman into the first chicane.

There was also drama for the No. 87 Lexus approaching the end of the third hour when Schmid was ordered to stop on track when its radiator had been speared by debris.

This left Eduardo Barrichello in the sister Aston in second place at the mid-point of the race, while a charging Riccardo Pera had risen to third in the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo that was penalized in the first hour for pit lane speeding.

Dempsey then lost another place when Ben Tuck, recovering from Powell’s drive-throughs in the No. 77 Mustang, moved up to fourth just before halfway.

Meanwhile, Jonny Edgar was starting to make up ground after Keating’s earlier troubles and was running seventh at the race’s mid-point and was in a stronger position in the title fight.