Four hours into the race at the classic Monza parkland circuit, Cadillac and Porsche are leading the way. But getting here has been an absolute disaster for half the grid.
The third hour kicked off with major drama when the second-placed Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001 driven by Paul-Loup Chatin ground to a halt at the exit of the Ascari Chicane, retiring due to a technical problem. That pushed the #36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 of Victor Martins up to second place behind the leading Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R of Sébastien Bourdais, who had taken over from the star of the opening two-and-a-half hours, Jack Aitken. What followed was a stunning three-way fight at the front. Sheldon van der Linde muscled his #20 BMW into the scrap after jumping the #51 Ferrari AF Corse in the pits, eventually clearing Martins just after a Full Course Yellow when the French rookie looked sluggish at the green flag. Van der Linde kept Bourdais honest, but the Cadillac simply had enough pace across all three sectors.
Midway through the fourth hour, high drama struck again as Charles Milesi crashed heavily at the exit of the Parabolica, severely damaging the #35 Alpine and bringing out the fourth safety car of the race. This marked the first time an Alpine had retired from an FIA WEC race since the 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During the lengthy safety car, the order froze with the #38 Cadillac leading the #20 BMW, #36 Alpine, #51 Ferrari, #15 BMW, and #94 Peugeot. At the restart just before the fifth hour, Martins pulled off a brilliant move on van der Linde's BMW into the Rettifilo chicane to reclaim second and immediately hunted down the leading Cadillac, now driven by Earl Bamber. Meanwhile, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari—which had fought back superbly from an earlier penalty—lost a bunch of positions when a wheel detached after a pit stop, dropping the yellow 499P out of the top ten. Peugeot suffered a tough middle stretch as the #94 9X8 faced an investigation for an unsafe pit release and the sister #93 car fell to ninth, while Toyota quietly circulated in 10th and 11th with the #7 car ahead of the sister #8 TR010 Hybrid as they close in on a Drivers' title to match their already-clinched Manufacturers crown.
Over in LMGT3, the battle for supremacy was just as wild. Akkodis ASP Team and Proton Competition initially fought for the lead before Giammarco Levorato executed a superb move on the leading #87 Lexus of Clemens Schmid. Shortly after, the Austrian pulled off the track on the run down to the Parabolica with a terminal issue, handing second to the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin where Eduardo Barrichello began harrying Levorato for the lead. Behind them, a fierce fight saw Ben Tuck muscle his #77 Proton Ford Mustang past the third-placed #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche. But a major shake-up during the fourth-hour safety car saw the #92 Porsche re-emerge in the lead, heading the #77 Mustang and a resurgent #33 TF Sport Corvette, where Jonny Edgar is chasing the sole LMGT3 title this season. The #88 Proton Ford plummeted down the order after a stop/go penalty for pit-lane speeding under the safety car, and the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette endured a chaotic spell after Peter Dempsey picked up a penalty for contact with the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin at the first chicane. At last check, the #23 Aston Martin runs fourth ahead of the #69 Team WRT BMW and #91 Manthey DKR Engineering Porsche.
