Le Mans 24 Hours winner Pier Guidi snared the top spot aboard the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar by just 0.003s over Ye’s Porsche 963 LMDh in a 90-minute session that was red flagged with a little over two minutes left on the clock.
Pier Guidi logged a best effort of 1m37.533s in the car he shares with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, which had been 0.076s behind Ye in Calado’s hands before Pier Guidi’s improvement.
Ye headed the best of the Penske-run factory Porsches driven by Michael Christensen, which slotted into third ahead of Mike Conway’s #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID despite causing an early full course yellow.
Last year’s Monza pole winner, the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007, split the two Toyotas in fifth with Olivier Pla setting its fastest time.
Sebastien Buemi was sixth in the #8 Toyota, just edging out the #50 Ferrari driven by Nicklas Nielsen and Laurens Vanthoor’s #6 Penske Porsche.
Richard Westbrook put the sole Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R ninth, while Nico Muller rounded out the top 10 in the best of the two Peugeot 9X8s at the scene of the programme’s WEC debut last season.
The Swiss, a second off the pace, was trailed by his team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne in the sister #93 Peugeot and Esteban Guerrieri aboard the Vanwall Vandervell 680.
#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne
Photo by: Paolo Belletti
The 13-car Hypercar field was completed by the new Proton Competition Porsche, making its first appearance in the WEC. Its best time, 1.774s off the pace, was set by Harry Tincknell.
Robert Kubica headed a WRT 1-2 in the LMP2 division. A 1m40.356s for the Pole’s #41 ORECA-Gibson 07 put the two-time Italian Grand Prix podium finisher ahead of the sister #31 entry of Ferdinand Habsburg by 0.205s.
Albert Costa was third-fastest in the Le Mans-winning Inter Europol Competition ORECA ahead of Charles Milesi in the #36 Signatech-Alpine entry and Gabriel Aubry’s Vector Sport example.
The GTE Am field was led by Davide Rigon’s #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
The Italian logged a best time of 1m47.939s to beat the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Alessio Picariello and Ben Barker’s #86 GR Racing Porsche.
Series debutante Efrin Castro spun at the first Lesmo to cause the red flag aboard Project 1’s Porsche.
