WEC: Alpine wins epic Monza battle; Corvette take last gasp GTE Pro triumph

Hypercar

• Alpine Elf Team take second 2022 FIA WEC victory as Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and André Negrão seal a famous victory at Monza
• Race turns on its head in the fifth hour when the battle for the lead between No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Kamui Kobayashi and Matthieu Vaxiviere’s Alpine ends in contact on main straight 
• Kobayashi suffers a puncture and drops back to third place. He then loses further time with a 90-second stop/go penalty after being adjudged to have been at fault for the incident 
• That leaves a straight battle to the chequered flag between Vaxiviere and the Ryo Hirakawa-driven No.8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid 
• Vaxiviere wins the race by a mere 2.782s in a thrilling finale to extend championship points lead 
• Peugeot TotalEnergies squad experiences troubled debut with retirement for the No.93 Peugeot 9X8 and a delayed fourth-placed Hypercar classification for the No.94 car 
• Glickenhaus stars in the first half of the race and appeared to have the race under control but were forced to retire with a turbo failure 

LMGTE Pro

• Ferrari looked as if they would take a brilliant home victory as No.52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco were set to claim their first win of the season 
• But Corvette Racing pulled off a clever fuel strategy to save enough to avoid having to splash and dash in the closing stages of the race with Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner executing a memorable victory 
• Molina and Fuoco capitalised on a penalty for a technical infringement for the sister No.51 AF Corse Ferrari driven by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi but had to settle for second when Fuoco had to make a penultimate lap pit stop 
• No.51 AF Corse recovered to take third position after a fraught battle with the No.92 Porsche driver by Kevin Estre 
• The pair engage in several contacts during the fight which eventually resolves itself at the Variante Roggia when Pier Guidi emerges in front 
• Estre is handed a drive-through penalty for multiple contacts with Pier Guidi
• No.91 Porsche GT Team duo of Gimmi Bruni and Frederic Makowiecki finishes fifth after a relatively uneventful race

LMP2

• Realteam by WRT celebrates first-ever LMP2 victory as Ferdinand Habsburg, Rui Andrade and Norman Nato race to the win 
• Habsburg gets the jump on No.38 JOTA driven by Will Stevens at the final pit stop and opens out a race-winning gap on fresher Goodyear tyres for a popular win 
• Battle for second place plays out in the final 30-minutes between Stevens and hard-charging Nico Mueller in the Vector Sport entry 
• The battle sees the pair nose-to-tail for the last few laps with Stevens attempting to successfully triple stint his tyres. He completes the mission by just 0.3s to take runner up position after starting the race from the very last position on the grid
• No.28 JOTA looked set to battle for victory but an incident with the No.92 Porsche driven by Kevin Estre sees Jonathan Aberdein pitched into the Lesmo gravel trap and dropped down to 10^th position in the class 
• Inter Europol Competition places fourth after the most competitive showing of 2022 so far with Alex Brundle, Esteban Gutierrez and Jakub Śmiechowski, just a few seconds shy of a podium finish 

LMGTE Am

• Harry Tincknell, Christian Reid, and Sebastien Priaulx take No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche to its second win of the season after a faultless display 
• Tincknell overtakes the pole-sitting and class-leading Iron Dames Ferrari and is able to open a decisive gap to take the maximum points but had to complete a splash and dash fuel stop in the final six minutes of the race 
• Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey drive excellent race to claim second place and the best-ever WEC finish for the trio as well as for an all-female crew
• No.46 Team Project 1 Porsche of Matteo Cairoli, Mikkel Pedersen and Nicolas Leutwiller takes the final rung of the podium