Glickenhaus On Pole at Monza; No. 93 Peugeot Causes Red Flag

Romain Dumas gave Glickenhaus Racing its second pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship by topping qualifying for the 6 Hours of Monza.

The Frenchman went nine-tenths of a second clear in Saturday’s 10-minute prototype session with a time of 1:35.416 at the wheel of the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo that is also being driven this weekend by Olivier Pla and Pipo Derani.

Peugeot qualified fifth for its WEC debut in the top Hypercar class, however the French manufacturer’s other Peugeot 9X8 caused a red flag after stopping between the Lesmo corners with an issue.

Mikkel Jensen was unable to set a lap time in the troubled No. 93 machine, while his teammate Gustavo Menezes registered a 1:37.253 for Peugeot’s No. 94 entry.

Dumas led the way throughout qualifying, with the Glickenhaus driver first setting the fastest opening lap of 1:35.855 before improving by around four-tenths.

That resulted in the second pole for the American team and its technical partner Podium Advanced Technologies after Olivier Pla set the pace at Spa in May.

The Glickenhaus will share the front row of the grid with the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid after 24 Hours of Le Mans pole-sitter Brendon Hartley banked a time of 1:36.335.

Hartley bumped Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre off the front row by 0.164 seconds, while Menezes consequently dropped to fourth before losing another position to a late Kamui Kobayashi improvement in the No. 7 Toyota, shortly before the red flag.

Kobayashi moved into fourth, meaning that the lead Peugeot will share the third row of the grid with the LMP2 pole-sitting No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson of Filipe Albuquerque.

The Portuguese driver clocked a 1:38.403 for the Anglo-American squad, moving ahead of Mathias Beche who initially looked set to take a surprise pole for ARC Bratislava.

Beche still put the Slovakian Pro-Am team on the front row of the overall class grid, while Ferdinand Habsburg qualified third for Realteam by WRT ahead of AF Corse’s Alessio Rovera and Algarve Pro Racing’s James Allen, both of whom are racing in Pro-Am.

Ferrari Takes First GTE-Pro Pole of Season

Alessandro Pier Guidi delivered Ferrari’s first GTE-Pro pole of the year but the Italian marque saw a potential front-row lockout spoiled by Corvette Racing’s Nick Tandy.

Pier Guidi set a time of 1:45.270 in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo that he shares with James Calado, ending Porsche’s streak of three consecutive poles.

Antonio Fuoco initially set the pace before Pier Guidi superseded his teammate with a minute remaining, setting up a provisional Ferrari one-two until Tandy burst through right at the end with an improvement in the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

Tandy, who went quickest early in the session only to lose his time due to track limits, went third-fastest with a 1:45.543 before shaving it down to a 1:45.324 that undercut Fuoco in the No. 52 Ferrari by four-thousandths of a second.

Porsche 911 RSR-19s rounded out the GTE-Pro order with Gianmaria Bruni putting the No. 91 car in fifth, ahead of his teammate Michael Christensen.

The GTE-Am pole went to Iron Dames driver Sarah Bovy, who left it late to eclipse TF Sport’s Ben Keating.

Bovy’s final-lap attempt of 1:47.431 in the No. 85 Ferrari edged the Belgian 0.227 seconds ahead of Keating, who led the two previous Bronze driver qualifying sessions this season at Sebring and Spa.

Christian Ried, who claimed an ELMS GTE pole at Monza last weekend, took third for Porsche squad Dempsey-Proton Racing, while AF Corse’s Christoph Ulrich was fourth.

Results to follow