Pier Guidi Leads Opening Monza Practice for Ferrari

Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest lap time in the opening Free Practice session for the 6 Hours of Monza, the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The Italian reeled off a best lap of 1:37.533 aboard the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, leading the way on home soil for the Prancing Horse after its recent 24 Hours of Le Mans win.

Pier Guidi’s effort came in the latter stages of the 90-minute session on Friday and dropped Hertz Team JOTA to second place.

A 1:37.536 from Yifei Ye left the privateer No. 38 Porsche 963 with a deficit of just 0.003 seconds to Pier Guidi, while Michael Christensen completed the top three in the factory-run No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry.

Christensen caused an early Full Course Yellow when he brought the car to a halt at the Rettifilo chicane, but the car returned to the track to complete 38 laps in total.

Mike Conway slotted into fourth aboard the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, ahead of Glickenhaus’ Olivier Pla and the second Toyota in the hands of Brendon Hartley.

The No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco and No. 6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor took seventh and eighth, while Richard Westbrook and Nico Mueller rounded the top ten for Cadillac and Peugeot, respectively.

Robert Kubica led a Team WRT 1-2 in LMP2, setting a 1:40.356 aboard the No. 41 Oreca 07 Gibson to lead teammate Ferdinand Habsburg by 0.205 seconds.

Inter Europol Competition’s No. 34 Oreca was third in the hands of Albert Costa, with Alpine’s Charles Milesi and Vector Sport’s Gabriel Aubry fourth and fifth.

Davide Rigon led GTE-Am in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, posting a 1:47.538 to outpace Iron Lynx Porsche driver Matteo Cressoni by 0.107 seconds.

FP1 was interrupted twice more beyond the Christensen FCY, with a second Full Course Yellow coming out for debris at the first Lesmo.

A late red flag, caused by an incident at the same corner for the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 and a software issue at race control, occurred with three minutes to go.

Track action at Monza resumes with the second Free Practice session at 4:40 p.m. CEST (10:40 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1