A tense six hours of racing saw Toyota Gazoo Racing clutch their third consecutive 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship overall win from the jaws of defeat, but it was the first time since Bahrain 2017 both Toyotas did not feature on the on-track overall podium.
Although they won, the 6 Hours of Monza was a race to forget for Toyota, who spent the entire 360 minutes fighting technical issues on both of their cars. The duo led across the line with little issue, looking like they were going to in act yet another lights to flag one-two, but it wasn’t long before technical issues struck the #8.
Leaving the #7 to disappear into the distance, the crew of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima made four unscheduled visits to the garage for technical concerns, including a fuel pressure issue. The trio didn’t have enough time nor did anyone else have as big issues to claw back any of the time lost, seeing them 43 laps down at the chequered flag. They only took a class fourth place because the #708 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus retired from the race with a spark plug issue and the lost of an engine cylinder.
It was looking good for the #7 crew until the start of the penultimate hour when Kamui Kobayashi, on board at the time, ground to a halt coming out of the Lesmo complex. He did manage to get the car moving again, but in the time he was stationary the #709 Glickenhaus had passed him for the overall lead of the race, 40s down the road.
The race swung back in their favour when Glickenhaus brought the #709 into the garage for a precautionary brake change, effectively giving up the lead, but with such a loss of their advantage with the on-track stop the Alpine Elf Matmut was hot on the Toyota’s heels and looking to pounce for the overall victory. It was a dash to the finish as Mike Conway, in the car for the final hour, had to stop for a splash of fuel before the end of the race. Matthieu Vaxiviere only had to sit and wait, knowing they could get to the end and would be handed the win when Conway dove into the pits.
However, a late Full Course Yellow to clear debris off the track gave Conway a free stop, with the rest of the racing traffic slowing down on track whilst he was on pit lane. The advantage brought Conway out ahead of Vaxiviere by almost a minute, an advantage too much for the LMP1 car to bring down before the chequered flag. After the race, the pit stop was investigated by the FIA, but Toyota were handed a warning for their infringement and with no further action the #7 crew picked up their first win of the season.
The #709 Glickenhaus picked up class third behind Alpine, but due to their late stop for new brakes they gave up the overall podium, seeing LMP2 winners #22 United Autosport take the bottom step instead. This is the first time an LMP2 car has featured on the overall podium since the 2020 season finale in Bahrain when only two LMP1 cars (the Toyotas) were entered.
United Autosport beat out pole-sitters Team WRT after a long winded battle throughout the six hours of racing. It had been in both team’s hands to take class victory and third overall, but Team WRT got the timing wrong on their final stop and got caught out by the Full Course Yellow. In the same way the caution handed the advantage and win to Toyota, so too did it assist United Autosport. It was a valiant effort from Team WRT to claim their first podium and almost first class win at their third race in the WEC. #29 Racing Team Nederland finished off the LMP2 podium, also securing another win in the LMP2 Pro/Am championship.
Inter Europol Competition took fourth in class after being handed a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with the #70 RealTeam LMP2 in the opening 30 minutes of the race. The top five was rounded off by JOTA entry #28 who recovered well from Stoffel Vandoorne‘s qualifying crash yesterday. Risi Competizione, who entered the 6 Hours of Monza for practice ahead of their 24 Hours of Le Mans entry, sadly failed to finish the race after looking set for a top five class finish from early race pace.
Retaining the pattern of swapping race winners between the #92 Porsche GT Team and #51 AF Corse, Neel Jani and Kevin Estre denied the Ferrari team a home victory by racing from pole to take the GTE overall and class win. Ferrari did manage to get the jump on the Porsche that had been dominating the race through the first three hours, but a faster pit stop put the German manufacturer back in front. From that moment, it wasn’t really a race as Jani and Estre cruised home with a 32s lead.
Adding insult to injury, Porsche also claimed the bottom step of the podium with second entry #91 in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, taking a one-three as well as the teams’ championship lead.
But Ferrari did take a home victory, with the #83 works Am car coming across the line first to the delight of the local tifosi. It was, once again, a walk in the park for Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera who crossed the line with 45s on their closest rival. However, behind them the fight for second was electric, going until the chequered flag dropped. Augusto Farfus, Paul Dalla Lana and Marcos Gomes raced hard in their Aston Martin Racing #98 to pipe fellow Aston Martin-running D’station Racing for second. Tomonobu Fuji, Satoshi Hoshino and Andrew Watson completed the GTE Am podium.
Ben Keating had looked set to control the race from the front after leading the pack from pole, but in an attempt to go longer on his tyres to extend the stint he suffered a major blow out on the front left, shredding body work and sending the car into the barriers at high speed. Keating was fine and walked away from the incident, but the TF Sport team did attempt to run the tyres longer than the advised stint length from Michelin, leading to the blow out. This incident brough out the sole safety car of the race.
