The Headlines after 4 Hours from Monza
- The third hour began with major drama at Monza, as the second placed Genesis Magma Racing car driven by Paul-Loup Chatin stopped on the exit of Ascari Chicane and retired as a consequence of a technical problem
- That elevated the #36 Alpine of Victor Martins in to second place behind the leading Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Hypercar of Sebastien Bourdais, which the French veteran had taken over from the star of the first two and a half hours of the race, Jack Aitken
- There then began a titanic three-way battle at the front of the field as Sheldon van der Linde, in the #20 BMW, joined the scrap after he jumped the #51 Ferrari AF Corse in the pits. The South African was able to clear Martins just after a Full Course Yellow period in which the French rookie appeared sluggish in re-starting when the green flag flew
- Van der Linde kept Bourdais honest at the front, but the Cadillac appeared to have just enough pace across the three sectors of the classic Monza parkland circuit
- Midway through the fourth hour there was high drama as Charles Milesi crashed heavily at the exit of the Parabolica severely damaging the #35 Alpine and bringing out the fourth safety car of the race. It was the first time an Alpine had retired from a WEC race since the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans
- In a lengthy SC period, the order was fixed at #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota, #20 BMW, #36 Alpine, #51 Ferrari AF Corse, #15 BMW and #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies entry
- At the re-start of the race, just before the fifth hour arrived, Martins made a brilliant move on van der Linde’s BMW in to the Retifillo chicane to claim second and then re-engaged the leading Cadillac, that was now under the control of Earl Bamber
- During that period the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, that had fought back superbly from its earlier penalty, lost a clutch of positions after a wheel became detached after its pit stop. That dropped the yellow 499P car back down out of the top ten.
- Peugeot had a challenging mid-portion phase of the race as the #94 was placed under investigation for an unsafe pit release, while the #93 car dropped back to ninth position
- Toyota continued to circulate steadily in 10th and 11th position as the #7 car moved ahead of the sister #8 TR010 Hybrid Hypercar as the Japanese manufacturer gets set to celebrate a drivers’ title to add to its already manufacturers crown
LMGT3
- Further fierce battles raged in the mid-phase of the battle for supremacy in LMGT3 as initially Akkodis ASP Lexus and Proton Competition Ford Mustang fight for the lead
- That fight concluded in the third hour when Giammarco Levorato pulled off a superb move on the leading #87 Lexus of Clemens Schmid. But just after that was resolved, Schmid drove off the track on the run down to the Parabolica with a terminal issue and retired from the race
- That allowed the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin in to second position and Eduardo Barrichello harried Levorato for the lead in a thrilling and nail-biting duel
- Behind those two, an even closer battle raged as the third placed #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche defends from a fired-up Ben Tuck in the #77 Proton Ford Mustang, which found a way through in to third
- But a major shake-out occurs in the fourth hour when the fourth Safety Car was called for and the #92 The Bend Manthey re-emerged in to the lead heading the #77 Ford Mustang and a re-surgent #33 TF Sport Corvette with Jonny Edgar aiming to become the sole LMGT3 champion this season
- The #88 Proton Ford dropped well down the order after it received a stop/go penalty for pitlane speeding during the safety car period
- The #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette had a coruscating mid-section of the race after Peter Dempsey was penalised for contact with the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin that suffered some damage in the accident at the first chicane. Dempsey was penalised for the incident
- The #23 Aston Martin dropped down to fourth place ahead of the #69 Team WRT BMW and the #91 Manthey DKR Engineering Porsche
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