No.38 Cadillac dominates WEC 6 Hours of Monza while Toyota No.8 and Corvette No.33 seal championships
The No.38 Team Jota Cadillac has won the World Endurance Championship's (WEC's) 6 Hours of Monza. Jack Aitken, Sebastian Bourdais and Earl Bamber led most of the race, after Aitken took the lead in the first stint from third on the grid.
The No.8 Toyota crew of Sebastian Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley sealed the world championship title from way down in 11th place, after both Toyotas struggled all race and finished outside of the points. However, with the No.7 in 12th, they still emerge as champions.
In LMGT3 the No.92 Manthey Porsche of Yasser Shahin, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera took the victory, doing their best to try and win the title with a last ditch effort. Lietz had to defend for his life on the final lap, just barely holding off the No.23 Aston Martin.
However, with the No.33 TF Sport Corvette in third place, that crowned Jonny Edgar as drivers champion, with Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg winning the teams championship alongside him.
Update - Post race penalty
The No.007 Aston Martin have lost their podium after a post-race penalty for tyre pressure infringements, they are also under investigation for their Virtual Energy usage. The No.51 Ferrari takes their place on the podium.
As it happened
If you missed the first three hours of the race, catch up here.
It was the No.38 Cadillac driven by Sebastian Bourdais leading the way as we crossed the halfway mark, being chased down by Sheldon van der Linde and Victor Martins in the No.20 BMW and the No.36 Alpine.
In LMGT3 it was Giammarco Levorato in the No.88 Proton Ford Mustang at the front, defending from Eduardo Barrichello in the No.23 Aston Martin.
Behind those two there was a fiesty battle for third place, with the No.92 Porsche of Riccardo Pera defending hard from Ben Tuck in the No.77 Ford.
10 minutes after the halfway mark there was a flurry of Hypercar stops. Once everyone was in and out, the order stayed exactly the same. Bourdais led from van der Linde and Martins, with Yifei Ye closing the gap in fourth place, through an off-set strategy.
They were soon followed by a round of LMGT3 pit stops, which saw the No.88 and No.23 come in from the lead separated just by quarter of a second. Those pit stops were interrupted by a Virtual Safety Car (VSC), which handed a big advantage to the No.92 Porsche and the No.33 Corvette.
Neither had pit under green, and were able to benefit from the VSC pit stop and stay in first and second place.
That VSC was for the No.35 Alpine of Charles Milesi, who lost the rear end coming out of Parabolica, and hitting the wall on the outside hard. Milesi was okay, but the car had significant damage, which prematurely ended Alpine's final race in the WEC.
Martins was quick from third on the restart, jumping past the BMW ahead to get into second place and getting after Earl Bamber, who took the No.38 over from Bourdais at the pit stop.
In LMGT3, Ben Tuck in the No.77 Ford made his way past Jonny Edgar in the No.33 Corvette, with the Briton coming under pressure from the other Ford after. However, the No.88 was given a 15 second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pits, so Levorato dropped out of Edgar's mirrors.
Tuck then chased down Pera out front, and eventually caught up to the back of him. The Ford driver got on the brakes late into the second chicane, and sent it down the inside to take the lead of the race with just over 95 minutes remaining.
There was another round of pit stops for the Hypercars, and Bamber was able to re-emerge ahead of Martins fairly comfortably. Behind, Robin Frijns took over the No.20 BMW. On cold tyres he locked up into Ascari, going wide and allowing Antonio Giovinazzi in the No.51 Ferrari through into third. He dropped backed into the clutches of the No.94 too, Malthe Jakobsen wasting no time in getting by.
Frijns made a very similar mistake a few laps later, re-joining in the path of the No.50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco. Quick reactions from the Italian got him through and past the BMW, with Alex Lynn in the No.12 Cadillac following suit.
As the sister No.15 car of Dries Vanthoor also passed, Frijns complained on the radio of a brake issue, which would've caused the incidents. It is also important to note that two of the tyres on the No.20 were over 100 laps old at this stage of the race.
Just after there was a Full-Course Yellow for a large piece of Mustang debris on the track. The No.7 Toyota hit the No.77 Ford, taking a chunk off each car and sending a Ford wheel arch right into the path of the No.8 Toyota. All cars continued on, albeit with damage.
Sebastian Priaulx took over that car when they came in for repairs, but salt was added to their wounds as they were given a drive-through for FCY infringements, as did the No.88 sister car.
Towards the rear of the Hypercar field, the two Toyotas were battling with the No.17 Genesis of Pipo Derani. Derani went for a move on the No.8, missing his braking point and going straight into the back of the No.7 of Kamui Kobayashi. Both spun around, but re-joined the race.
Derani had an issue soon after, with smoke billowing out of the front-right of the car in the pit lane. The team took the front end off, took care of the fire and got the car back out with 56 minutes remaining.
In LMGT3, the No.61 Mercedes of Maxime Martin was leading the way, but was about half a stint off strategy from the rest of the pack. The No.92 Porsche was second and led the way for those on the main strategy, with Esteban Masson in the No.78 Lexus also on the same strategy as Martin.
Those two pit, putting the Porsche in the lead, ahead of the No.33 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, with the No.23 Aston Martin not far behind. Eduardo Barrichello caught up to Catsburg, and managed to get past with a move into the final corner.
The final Hypercar pit stops occured with 45 minutes to go, everyone coming in and getting back out again in the same positions. Bamber leading from Martins, Giovinazzi and Jakobsen. The only change was Frijns dropping out of the top 10, because they finally replaced those 100+ lap old tyres.
In the final stint, the quickest car on track was the No.007 Aston Martin of Tom Gamble, so was flying up the order. He got past the No.12 Cadillac and No.94 Peugeot to fourth, and was quickly closing on Giovinazzi for a podium spot with 20 minutes to go.
He made quick work of the Ferrari when he got there too, moving the Valkyrie into the podium places. Gamble was however, short on fuel. The team were hoping for some form of intervention to help them get to the end.
In the final few minutes of the race, Jakobsen was defending fifth place from Alex Lynn in the No.12 Cadillac. The two got very aggressive with each other, and on the penultimate lap, coming out of the second chicane, Lynn turned across the front of the Peugeot and hit the wall hard. He spread debris all across the track, but race control didn't call a FCY, they let everyone race under double yellows.
In LMGT3 it came down to the final lap, with Barrichello in the No.23 Aston Martin putting big pressure on Lietz into turn 1. He couldn't get by there, and had to go through the double yellows for the No.12. That was his last real chance, the Porsche able to hold on and take the victory.
Meanwhile Bamber came through to win ahead of Martins, with Gamble just able to make it to the finish on fuel and secure a podium for the Valkyrie.
Nicky Catsburg in the No.33 TF Sport Corvette crossed the line in third place to secure not only a podium, but the drivers title for Jonny Edgar, and the teams championship for the No.33.
Toyota's No.8 car finished in 11th place, but with the No.7 behind them in 12th, they take the drivers title in 2026.
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