This 2023 WEC 6 Hours of Monza race report is proudly brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship took place at Monza in sweltering conditions. A circuit that needs no introduction to racing fans, it is the third time the venue has hosted the event in the modern era. Sadly, it will make way for Imola in 2024.

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Proton Racing made its debut in the Hypercar class at Monza, fielding a Porsche 963. The drivers only saw the car for the first time on Wednesday before the race for seat-fitting. They performed superbly, despite having no experience with the car. Unfortunately, they retired with engine failure in the closing stages of the race.

Hypercars

Polesitters Toyota No7 (Kobayashi/Conway/Lopez) eventually took a fine victory, but had to work for it. Peugeot #93 (Vergne/diResta/Jensen) showed its potential by blasting past into the lead in the early stages. Ferrari #50 (Fuoco/Nielsen/Molina) followed the Peugeot through soon afterwards. A few safety car periods came into play, after which Toyota #7 and Ferrari #50 vied for victory.

Toyota #8 (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa) with Sebastien Buemi at the wheel, was feisty in the early stages of the race. He made contact with Ferrari #51 (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) at Rettifilio just after the start, sending him into a spin. A few laps later, he made contact with the Dstation Racing Aston Martin 777 just before Ascari, sending the Aston into the wall and destroying the car. Buemi was penalised a one-minute stop-and-go for the incident. Despite this setback, the team recovered to finish a fine fourth.

The Tifosi would have loved to see Ferrari triumph again after their success at Le Mans. They turned up in their droves to show support to their beloved team. While they did not take victory, #50 finished an excellent second, while #51 battled to sixth place.

*Edited:  The #8 Toyota lost fourth-place due to a post-race penalty totaling 50 seconds. The car was found to have exceeded its maximum power output of 507 kW on the 190th lap of the race. The penalty dropped the #8 Toyota to sixth and promoted the Penske Porsche 963 to fourth. The #51 Ferrari 499P jumped into the top five as well.

Click here to check out our bespoke gallery of images from the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Making Progress

Peugeot will see Monza as a special venue. They unveiled their machine at the inaugural event and made their debut at the event last season. Both machines ran strongly at the beginning of the race, with #93 finally finishing third – the team’s first podium since their return to WEC.

They showed speed early in the race too, powering past Ferrari and Toyota in quick succession to take the lead. Peugeot #94 (Duval/Menezes/Müller) suffered from gearing issues (gearing down in the braking zone). Müller demonstrated this early on when he couldn’t slow enough for Rettifilio chicane and had to run on over the grass, losing valuable time. Eventually, the car had to pit for repairs and they disappeared out of contention.

Lacking Pace

Porsche made fleeting appearances at the front of the field in the race, but did not show enough speed in the final stages of the race. Penske Porsche #5 (Christensen/Makowiecki/Cameron) was lying fourth, before being blitzed by Hartley (Toyota #8) and Calado (Ferrari #51) in the dying minutes of the race.

The #5 fought back, however, and finished the race in fifth place. The sister Penske Porsche #6 (Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor) finished seventh. JOTA Porsche #38 (Da Costa/Stevens/Ye) also appeared in the higher end of the leaderboard, but stopped on track shortly after its pit stop at the two-hour mark. An issue with the steering wheel at a pit stop and a drive-through penalty dropped them to an eventual ninth.

Glickenhaus Racing #708 (Dumas/Pla/Briscoe) was the only team entrant after Le Mans. They were the first All-American team home, finishing eighth overall. Cadillac #2 (Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook) had a less successful day, finishing tenth.

LMP2

JOTA #28 (Heinemeier Hansson/Rasmussen/Fittipaldi) took victory in the LMP2 class after a close battle with WRT #31 (Gelael/Frijns/Habsburg). Unfortunately for the Austrian team, they were forced to pit from the lead with a technical issue with a mere 20 minutes remaining. This left JOTA to canter alone to the chequered flag. Alpine #36 (Vaxiviere/Milesi/Canal) beat WRT #41 (Andrade/Kubica/Deletraz) to second place.

United Autosport #23 (van der Garde/Pierson/Jarvis), after battling in the top three for most of the race, faded to an eventual fourth. Gierdo van de Garde charged to second place in the opening stint of the race from 20th in class, impressing his teammates in the process. Prema #9 (Ugran/Viscaal/Caldarelli) and Vector Sport #10 (Cuken/Kaiser/Aubry) clashed for the minor positions at the two-hour mark. It resulted in #10 spinning into the barriers at the exit of the second Lesmo, bringing out the safety car. Both machines retired soon afterwards.

GTE Class

The GTE Am class saw Corvette #33 (Catsburg/Keating/Varonne) take the class world championship title, such has been their dominance in the class. They did the necessary and finished fourth in class. Proton-Dempsey Porsche #77 (Ried/Pedersen/Andlauer), a fan favourite, took a fine victory ahead of Iron Lynx Porsche #60 (Schiavoni/Cressoni/Picariello). GR Racing Porsche #86 (Wainwright/Pera/Barker) made it a single-marque podium in the class. Iron Dames Porsche #85 (Frey/Bovy/Gatting) rounded out the top five finishers. 

The sixth round of the WEC world championship takes place in Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji on 10 September 2023. This is the home race for Toyota and they must be resounding favourites to take victory on home soil.