Hartley Quickest in Tight Second Practice Session

Brendon Hartley’s early lap time in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid topped a close second Free Practice session for the 6 Hours of Monza.

The New Zealander produced a 1:37.692 effort in the opening few minutes and remained at the head of the leaderboard throughout the red flag-affected run.

Mikkel Jensen came closest to unseating Hartley, as the Dane produced a 1:37.775 to end up just 0.083 seconds shy of the fastest lap in the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8.

The Hypercar contenders were more tightly bunched compared to FP1, as all six cars fitted within the same half-second. This came after first and second place were separated by six-tenths on Friday.

Jensen was the only Hypercar driver to improve after a red flag that caused the 90-minute session to be extended almost half an hour beyond its scheduled 10:30 a.m. finishing time.

The stoppage was caused by a solo accident for Tijmen van der Helm in the ARC Bratislava Oreca 07 Gibson after 41 minutes of track action.

The left-rear tire of van der Helm’s LMP2 car touched the gravel on the exit of the Variante Roggia chicane, causing it to flick left into the barriers.

Van der Helm managed to bring the Oreca back to the pits with little visible damage to his vehicle’s nose, however barrier repairs resulted in a 23-minute interruption. A stopped clock prevented substantial track time from being lost.

Pipo Derani ranked third-quickest for Glickenhaus Racing on a time of 1:37.961 that came before the red flag, like all of the Hypercar numbers except Jensen’s.

Gustavo Menezes took fourth on a 1:38.061 in the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8, ahead of Matthieu Vaxiviere who produced a 1:38.082 aboard the Alpine A480 Gibson LMP1.

Kamui Kobayashi completed the top six as Toyota Gazoo Racing’s entries bookended the Hypercar order, but the No. 7 driver was only 0.424 seconds off Hartley.

Filipe Albuquerque set the LMP2 pace for United Autosports, with the Portuguese ace registering a 1:38.917 in the No. 22 Oreca that won at Monza last year.

Albuquerque was the only LMP2 driver to enter the 1m 38s territory, as Alessio Rovera finished second for AF Corse on a 1:39.172.

Porsche beat Ferrari to the top of the times in GTE-Pro, courtesy of the 1:46.245 that Gianmaria Bruni clocked in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 before the red.

Miguel Molina made a couple of improvements after the interruption to put the No. 52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in second, ahead of the sister No. 51 car driven by James Calado. Molina ended up just under half a second behind Bruni.

The No. 92 Porsche came through in fourth, while Corvette Racing propped up the GTE-Pro order with Tommy Milner posting a time of 1:47.255.

Mikkel O. Pedersen climbed to the top of the GTE-Am leaderboard in the final five minutes of the session, elevating the No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche ahead of AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari.

Pedersen overcame AF Corse No. 54 driver Nick Cassidy’s 1:47.777 benchmark by just four-hundredths of a second to lead the way for the German squad, as Toni Vilander slotted into second.

In addition to the red flag, there was an early Full Course Yellow period for Ultimate’s Oreca stopping at the first chicane. Richard Mille Racing Team’s Oreca also came to a halt at the same spot when the red flag occurred.

Free Practice 3 is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CEST (7:30 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2