As Motorsport.com Italia reports, the season-ending FIA World Endurance Championship round at Monza continues to deliver absolute chaos, with repeated neutralizations blowing the race wide open heading through the fourth hour.
Drama struck early in the third hour when Paul-Loup Chatin stopped the Genesis #19 at the exit of the Ascari curve, triggering a Virtual Safety Car that quickly escalated into a full Safety Car. The resulting chaos scrambled the entire order. Further trouble followed as Francesco Castellacci parked the Ferrari #54 stranded at the first chicane, and Clemens Schmid brought the Lexus-ASP #87 to a halt near the Parabolica, forcing a brief Full Course Yellow. Meanwhile, Alex Riberas survived a heart-stopping moment under heavy braking at the end of the straight, sliding the Valkyrie #009 into the barriers before dragging the damaged machine back to the pits for a replacement nose.
The stewards were kept exceptionally busy. A drive-through penalty hit the Lexus-ASP #78 for a Virtual Safety Car infringement, and the Corvette-TF #34 drew the same punishment after Peter Dempsey rear-ended Zach Robichon's Aston Martin-HoR #27. Additionally, the Genesis #17 copped a 5-second penalty for excessive power.
At the sharp end of the Hypercar field, the Cadillac-Jota #38 maintained its grip on the lead through diverging strategies that ultimately compressed back together. Once the field re-aligned, the BMW #20 forced its way back into contention, breathing down the leader's neck alongside the Alpine #36 and the Ferrari #51.
That fragile equilibrium shattered midway through the fourth hour when Charles Milesi violently smashed the Alpine #35 into the barriers at the exit of the Parabolica, forcing yet another VSC and Safety Car deployment. Pit lane drama compounded the tension as the Ferrari #50 nearly collided with a Toyota during its release, while an even worse fate hit the Ferrari #83, which shed its right rear wheel at Ascari and crawled back to the lane, tumbling down the running order.
When the race finally went green again, Earl Bamber immediately hammered down in the Cadillac #38 to establish a fresh gap. Behind him, Victor Martins muscled the Alpine #36 past Sheldon Van Der Linde's BMW #20 to take second, leaving the Ferrari #51 sitting fourth. Further back, Raffaele Marciello faced intense pressure in fifth aboard the BMW #15, hounded by Théo Pourchaire in the Peugeot #94, with the Aston Martin #007, Cadillac #12, and Peugeot #93 swarming right behind. The Toyota #7 rounded out the top ten in a tight scrap with the Ferrari #50, while the Genesis #17 lagged further down the order.
Over in LMGT3, the battle for both the race win and the championship remains entirely up in the air. Riccardo Pera rocketed the Porsche-Manthey #92 to the front of the class, putting himself ahead of Jonny Edgar's Corvette-TF #33. Giammarco Levorato had previously dictated the pace for Ford-Proton #88 before dropping back and eventually hitting trouble with a 15-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The top five also features the Aston Martin-Heart of Racing #27 and the BMW-WRT #69, trailed by the Ford-Proton #77, the Porsche-Manthey #91, and a resurgent Ferrari-AF Corse #21. Rounding out the top ten are the Mercedes-Iron Lynx #61 and the Lexus-ASP #78, followed by the Mercedes-Iron Lynx #79 and the Aston-HoR #27.
