The first WEC race in Italy is the 6 Hours of Monza

Autodromo Nazionale Monza will host the 6 Hours of Monza, the first race in Italy of the World Endurance Championship, the FIA world endurance championship. The event is scheduled for Sunday 18 July. All the info on the program and tickets.

An absolute first in the Autodromo Nazionale Monza calendar that will give the audience present in the stands and spectators from all over the world connected from home a unique show. The 6 Hours of Monza of the Fia World Endurance Championship will take place on Sunday 18 July, the third round of the World Endurance Championship of the season. The WEC makes its debut in Italy with a race in the Temple of Speed, after the official Prologue tests hosted in 2017 by the Monza circuit.

Thirty-seven cars and one hundred and six drivers , of which fourteen are Italian, will take part in next weekend’s appointment, which anticipates the 24 Hours of Le Mans in August . It is the first event of the international series and of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza to which the public is admitted, after the closed-door races of 2020 and the beginning of the year. Spectators present on Sunday, seated in a grandstand and appropriately spaced, will then be able to admire in person five Hypercars (prototypes that replaced the LMP1s), twelve LMP2s, four LMGTE Pro and sixteen LMGTE Ams. On Friday and Saturday the circuit will be closed to the public.

Categories and cars in the race

Among the Hypercars there are three teams ready to battle: Toyota Gazoo Racing, Alpine Elf Matmut and Glickenhaus Racing. Toyota lined up two GR010 – Hybrids on the grid and led the world championship in Monza both in the drivers ‘standings – with Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley – and in the constructors’ standings. The only Alpine in the race, an A480 – Gibson, in the first two rounds of the WEC has accumulated a gap of 22 points. Glickenhaus Racing adds a prototype to the 007 LMH already present in previous races, thus deploying two cars in the Temple of Speed.

In LMP2 , whose grid consists of eleven Oreca 07 – Gibson and a Ligier JSP217 – Gibson, it is an open fight at the top between two teams: Jota and United Autosports USA. The crew made up of Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Roberto Gonzales has only 7 points ahead of Phil Hanson who leads the American prototype with Fabio Scherer and Filipe Albuquerque to Monza.

Similar situation in the LMGTE Pro , category with four cars competing: two Ferrari 488 GTE EVO and two Porsche 911 RSR – 19. At the moment, the top of the standings is held by Alessandro Pier Guidi, already winner at Monza last week in the LMGTE class of the ELMS, and James Calado of the AF Corse Team, who present themselves in the Temple of Speed with an advantage of 6 points on Kevin Estre and Neel Jani of the Porsche GT Team. The German team also fielded champion Gianmaria Bruni in its second car.

Finally, an Italian team leads the LMGTE Am category . This is Cetilar Racing , with three home drivers – Antonio Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Roberto Lacorte – driving a Ferrari 488 GTE EVO. Still in the same car from Maranello, in second position, we find AF Corse with Giancarlo Fisichella, Francesco Castellacci and the Swiss Thomas Flohr. Matteo Cairoli and Riccardo Pera will also take to the race in the Porsche 911 RSR – 19 of Team Project 1, driven together with Egidio Perfetti, the trio Claudio Schiavoni, Andrea Piccini and Matteo Cressoni in the Ferrari 488 GTE of Iron Lynx and Alessio Rovera (AF Racing).

The Cavallino, in addition to the ranking, dominates the entry list of the 6 Hours of Monza with ten Ferrari 488 GTE EVO among the LMGTEs. There will be seven Porsche 911 RSR – 19s and three Aston Martin Vantage AMRs. However, another brand will attract the attention of enthusiasts and professionals. This is Peugeot Sport which will preview the prototype of its 9×8 Le Mans Hypercar at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza with which it will return to endurance races from the 2022 season.

The program of the 6 Hours of Monza

The weekend program includes three free practice sessions . The first 90-minute session will be tomorrow at 3:30 pm, followed by a second session at 9:30 am on Saturday, again lasting an hour and a half. The shortest of 60 minutes will be at 2pm on Saturday. In the afternoon of the same day the starting grid is also decided, with two qualifying sessions of 10 minutes at 6 pm for LMGTE (Pro and Am) at 6.20 pm for Hypercar and LMP2. The 6-hour race starts on Sunday at noon.

Spectators who have already bought or will buy a Sunday ticket online will sit spaced out on the right side grandstand of the starting straight. There will also be a refreshment area with street food at their disposal. Fans who will stay at home will be able to follow the event live on television and streaming through the channels indicated on the website www.monzanet.it. Friday and Saturday the circuit will remain behind closed doors for spectators.

The complete calendar of the events of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza