One year on from the Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar’s competition debut at the Italian track, Vergne set the early pace in the hour-long session before he was usurped by Antonio Fuoco’s Ferrari, the Italian posting a 1m35.923s in his 499P LMH.
But Vergne then responded with the fastest time of the weekend to date aboard the #93 Peugeot, setting a 1m35.878s that proved 0.045s faster than Fuoco and was not surpassed for the remainder of the session.
Gustavo Menezes completed a strong morning’s work for Peugeot by logging the third-fastest time in the #94 9X8 ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi’s #51 Ferrari, the same chassis that won the Le Mans 24 Hours last month.
Alex Lynn was fifth-fastest aboard the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R, the leading LMDh car 0.571s down on Vergne’s effort.
His 1m36.449s lap put him ahead of the two privateer Porsche 963 LMDhs that overshadowed the Penske-run works cars. Ye Yifei was sixth quickest for Jota, while Harry Tincknell slotted into seventh aboard the brand-new Proton example that had only completed a shakedown prior to arriving at Monza.
The best of the Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMHs was eighth courtesy of a 1m37.402s from Kamui Kobayashi, just shading the leading works Porsche with Michael Christensen at the wheel of the #5 963.
Source: Autosport