The Le Mans-winning #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P topped the times in the first free practice session of the FIA WEC weekend at Monza this afternoon.
Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest lap for the car late in the session, a 1:37.533 to go just 0.003 quicker than the HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche 963 that spent most of the 90-minute session at the top of the timing screens.
Yifei Ye’s 1:37.536 was the #38’s best tour of the ‘Temple of Speed’, putting the British team in a strong position ahead of FP2.
The top three rounded out by the #5 Porsche, which caused an early Full-Course Yellow after stopping out on track. It was able to rejoin the session after a reset and end with a best time just three-tenths off the #51 and 38 laps completed.
Hypercar was incredibly close, the top nine ending up with lap times within six-tenths.
Behind the top three, the #7 Toyota ended up fourth ahead of the sole Glickenhaus 007 which set an impressive 1:37.917 to go fifth.
Free Practice 1 was the first run for Proton Competition’s brand-new Porsche 963, which was delivered to the team just last week. The German team managed to complete 31 laps and lap faster than all of the LMP2 runners, slotting in 13th. It was an encouraging start.
In LMP2 Team WRT ended up 1-2, with the #41 ORECA the quicker of the pair after a 1:40.356 from Robert Kubica. The best of the rest was the Inter Europol Competition ORECA.
GTE Am meanwhile, saw the #54 AF Corse Ferrari top the times, Davide Rigon’s early 1:47.538 enough of a benchmark time to go unchallenged until the end.
The #60 Iron Lynx and #86 GR Racing Porsches completed the top three, while the championship-leading Corvette C8.R would finish up ninth in the classification.
The session was brought to an early end, when red flags were shown with three minutes remaining, following a report of technical issues at Race Control.
Free Practice 2 is set to begin at 16:40 local time this afternoon.
