The #8 Toyota GR010 topped a close-knit Hypercar field in Saturday morning’s Free Practice 2 at Monza with Brendon Hartley punching out a 1:38.940, under a tenth up on the #93 Peugeot 9X8 of Mikkel Jensen with the #708 Glickenhaus SCG 007 Hypercar third quickest, Romain Dumas with a 1:37.961.
All six Hypercars were separated by just 0.424 of a second with all three fastest sector times in the session delivered by different cars (S1 for the Glickenhaus, S2 for the #93 Peugeot and S3 for the Alpine).
The #93 suffered a late session drama after a run through the gravel at Ascari for Jean-Eric Vergne caused suspected floor damage, the car suffering a right front puncture at Ascari on the next lap after something fell from the underside of the car puncturing the tyre.
That drama came after the session was extended by c.25 minutes to compensate for a Red Flag with 50 minutes to go, Tijmen van der Helm into the barriers in the #ARC Bratislava Oreca 07 Gibson at the exit of the Variante Roggia necessitating barrier repairs, the car though able to return to the pit lane for repairs, it would rejoin the session later.
There was trouble at the same time for Charles Milesi at T1, the #1 Richard Mille Racing Oreca suffering gearshift woes, the car requiring recovery to pit lane under the red flag but again rejoining the session later.
Filipe Albuquerque topped the LMP2 times in the #22 United Autosports Oreca with a 1:38.917, quarter of a second clear of Alessio Rovera in the #83 AF Corse car.
Gianmaria Bruni topped the GTE Pro times in the #91 Porsche he shares here with Fred Makowiecki, an early session 1:46.245 almost half a second clear of the #52 AF Corse Ferrari of Miguel Molina who leapfrogged the sister #51 car of James Calado.
Mikkel O. Pedersen was a rare late session improver, again mighty in the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche, a 1:47.738 just enough to grab GTE Am bragging rights from the #21 Ferrari of Toni Vilander with Nick Cassidy third quickest the #54 Ferrari.
David Pittard meanwhile had a scare, brushing the barrier in the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin after running wide through the second Lesmo.
