Dumas Leads Monza FP1; Peugeot Third

Romain Dumas set the fastest time in the Free Practice 1 for the 6 Hours of Monza for Glickenhaus, while Paul di Resta put Peugeot third overall in its first FIA World Endurance Championship session.

Dumas reeled off a 1:37.984 behind the wheel of the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo, outpacing the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson of Andre Negrao by 0.618 seconds.

Negrao went to the top in the opening 30 minutes of the session and sat there until Dumas put in his fastest lap time with under 40 minutes to go.

Behind them, Paul di Resta closed out Peugeot’s first WEC practice session by finishing third overall in the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8.

Di Resta set a 1:38.802, which was originally good enough for second place and only two tenths of a second behind Negrao.

That was until Dumas briefly held second before the veteran Frenchman set his fastest lap to end the session on top.

Sebastien Buemi, who was an early leader until Negrao set his quick lap, ended the session fourth aboard the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, leading teammate Mike Conway.

While Peugeot’s No. 93 car finished the session in the top three, its sister car had a more difficult session. It initially completed only eight laps with James Rossiter at the wheel and spent over an hour in the pits, before Loic Duval took the car back out in the closing minutes.

The Frenchman set a best lap of 1:41.522, behind the entire LMP2 field. 

The LMP2 standings were led by Alessio Rovera in the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson, who led the class by posting a 1:39.973.

He led Realteam by WRT’s Norman Nato by 0.249 seconds while Esteban Gutierrez rounded out the top three for Inter Europol Competition.

The Mexican outpaced fellow former Formula 1 racer Robert Kubica, who took fourth for Prema, with Filipe Albuquerque rounding out the top five aboard the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca.

Kevin Estre topped the timesheets in GTE, as the Frenchman posted a 1:47.273 behind the wheel of the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

Antonio Fuoco took second for AF Corse, 0.324 seconds down on last year’s Monza winner, with Nick Tandy third for Corvette Racing.

Ben Barnicoat set the fastest time in GTE-Am aboard the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche, leading an all-Porsche top three with Ben Barker second for GR Racing and the sister Team Project 1 entry of Matteo Cairoli third.

The second Free Practice session for the 6 Hours of Monza takes place at 9 a.m. CEST (3 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1