The 4 Hours of Monza concluded on Saturday 8th October with Team Redline’s No. 1 LMP and R8G Esports’ No 888 Ferrari taking their class wins.
The second leg of the 2022-23 Le Mans Virtual Series wound up getting virtually rainy on Saturday afternoon (8th October) in Italy. From dry to wet conditions, and then back to dry to close it out, it was anyone’s guess as to who would stand victorious in either the LMP or GTE classes.
After four hours of changing weather conditions at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Team Redline’s No. 1 crossed the line first overall in the LMP class while the R8G Esports No. 888 Ferrari 488 was able to take the checkers in the GTE class in the 4 Hours of Monza.
With the threat of rain noted at the start of the show, the four hour event saw the rain join the party around the 90-minute mark. The conditions would worsen before the got better, leading to a compelling afternoon of differing strategy throughout both classes during the event.
Sprinkle in a pair of Full Course Yellow flags, the first two in Le Mans Virtual Series history, and everything one might expect was flipped on its side throughout as strategies changed at several key moments.
“It was a very difficult race,” said Jeffrey Rietveld, driver of the winning No. 1 Team Redline LMP. “Switching from the dry, to the rain, and then back to the dry, that was very difficult circumstances, but I think we nailed the strategy and that gave us the win today.”
“It was an endurance,” said Risto Kappet, driver of the winning No. 888 R8G Esports Ferrari 488 GTE. “It was so crazy, there were so many smaller races inside this race, it was intense.”
All but one car finished the entirety of the event. The No. 4 Floyd Vanwall-Burst LMP leads by two points over the No. 1 Team Redline crew after two races, while the No. 99 Oracle Red Bull Racing Porsche GTE leads by 5.5 points over the No. 71 BMW Team Redline battalion.
Next up for the series will be the 6 Hours of Spa on 5th November 2022. After that, a trip stateside to Sebring for the 500 Miles of Sebring, USA on 3rd December. The series will conclude with the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual on the 14th and 15th of January 2023.
CRASH-FILLED FIRST HOUR
Things started off with a pair of nearly identical looking incidents into the opening corner for both classes.
It started off with a spin in the LMP class. The No. 21 SEM9.Axle LMP which was driven by Naquib Azlan got tagged as things spread out. Azlan clipped the grass and wound up bowling into the No. 8 R8G Esports LMP which had Marcell Csincsik behind the wheel. Everyone was able to continue onward.
Moments later, the No. 99 Red Bull Porsche with Alex Siebel starting out the race was tagged similarly, spinning into the field in a similar way, bowling their own strike into the No. 11 Project 1 by Dörr Esports Porsche driven by Leonard Krippner.
Both the No. 99 and No. 11 wound up in the pits for damage repair, both losing laps in the process.
There was a question on whether the No. 23 Porsche Coanda LMP, with Joshua Rogers in the seat, had gotten an illegal start over the No. 1 Team Redline LMP driven by Maximillian Benecke. Race Stewards deemed the start OK, and that would be crucial.
Rogers trailed Mitchell deJong, driving the No. 20 Porsche Coanda LMP from the pole position, but things would swap after the first pit stop. Both cars pitted at the same time and because the No. 23 of Rogers was ahead of deJong, Rogers had the better pit exit, taking the lead in the cycle, leading through the first hour.
The first hour saw its slew of crashes, including a big one in Curva Alboreto involving a handful of LMP drivers. the No. 966 Team Fordzilla entry, driven by Luke Browning, attempted a move on the No. 28 YAS Heat Veloce LMP which had Marko Pejic driving. The two made contact and calamity ensued.
The No. 8 R8G Esports LMP with Marcell Csincsik, the No. 100 Arnage Competition LMP with Adam Pinczes and more were also involved. All cars continued but the No. 966 received a Stop and Go penalty while the others lost a lap in damage repairs.
Meanwhile for GTE, the No. 51 SF Velas Esports Team Ferrari with Christian Michel in the cockpit managed to take the lead at the start over the No. 888 R8G Esports Ferrari which had Timotej Andonovski start the event from the pole.
The No. 888 took control back about 16 minutes in, but the No. 77 Proton Coanda Porsche and the No. 95 Prodrive FYRA Esport Aston Martin were both in contention.
Charlie Collins scrapped for the lead at one point in the No. 77, but ended up losing a few spots in the process as Lasse Sørensen moved the No. 95 ahead for a time.
After about 50 to 55 minutes, the first pit stops went down for the GTE class. Many drivers opted to swap drivers at this point, including the No. 51 (Jordy Zwiers), No. 888 (Alexander Smolyar) and No. 77 (Dayne Warren). The No. 51 with Zwiers behind the wheel was able to cycle around to the lead following the pits.
The No 71 BMW Team Redline machine of Kevin Siggy opted to do a double stint, staying in the car and moving up into a podium position before the end of the hour.
THINGS START TO GET WET IN HOUR 2
Things seemed to calm down for the second hour of the event, but that was before the rains came.
The second round of pit stops for the LMP class dropped early, about eight minutes following the first hour’s completion. Many drivers would swap here, including both Porsche Coanda teams (No. 23 Mack Bakkum, No. 20 Tommy Østgaard).
One team did not take the opportunity to swap their driver, that being the No. 2 Team Redline LMP driven by Diogo Pinto. Pinto was able to take the lead as a result, leading by more than 10 seconds over the leading Porsche Coanda entry of the No. 23.
Through the stint, Bakkum would close that gap heavily, with Pinto taking the triple stint on older tires.
As the LMP class closed in, the GTE class got spicy between the No. 51 of Zwiers and the No. 888 of Smolyar. The two began to go side-by-side in the Lesmos as both of their windshield wipers suddenly came on.
Rain! It began to lightly rain just after the one-and-a-half hour mark! Just before both the LMP and GTE pit cycles were about to begin. The track was declared wet by Race Stewards with two hours and 23 minutes to go, which meant that wet tires were now on the table for teams to possibly utilize.
However, a Full Course Yellow would shake things up even further. Around two hours and 20 minutes to go, the No. 18 R8G Esports LMP of Christopher Högfeldt turned himself off of the nose of a slower GTE.
With the area where Högfeldt crashed and his attempt to get back to the pits, Stewards threw the Full Course Yellow, requiring drivers to slow down and get on the pit limiter around the track. Some teams opted to pit, including the No. 36 Alpine Esports LMP of Rory MacDuff, a few other LMPs and a majority of the GTE class.
Things would get even more jumbled as the Full Course Yellow lifted before others could pit. The Porsche Coanda duo would pit immediately while the No. 1 Team Redline and No. 4 Floyd Vanwall-Burst LMPs opted to stay out for a few more laps.
Before the end of the hour, many teams were starting to feel the need for wet tires. The No. 63 AMG Team Petronas Esports LMP was the first to bite with many more opting through the end of the hour.
WET TIRES VS SLICK TIRES IN HOUR 3
Transitioning through the halfway point, with rain still falling around the Temple of Speed, pit stops continued into the third hour of the event. There were still a few stragglers on slick tires, including the pole sitters in the No. 20 Porsche Coanda LMP.
The No. 63, driven by Graham Carroll, would take the lead with the strategy to take the wet tires as early as they did. With about an hour and 50 minutes remaining, the 77th lap of the race, the No. 20 finally took it to the pits for wet tires. Both the No. 1 Team Redline and the No. 36 Alpine Esports LMPs found themselves right in the thick of it, the No. 1 taking the lead from the No. 63 on lap 78.
With Luke Bennett now behind the wheel of the No. 1 Team Redline LMP, on the freshest wet tires of the three leaders, the gap started to increase immediately over the rest of the field.
Meanwhile in the GTE class, things were pretty quiet through the start of the rain. Andonovski and the No. 888 R8G Esports Ferrari team had a comfortable lead over Paschalis Gkergkis who had taken control of the No. 77 Proton Coanda Porsche.
After falling down the order due to the timing of the Full Course Yellow, both the No. 2 Team Redline LMP and the No. 71 BMW Team Redline GTE had a mountain to climb to get back to the top of their respective classes.
With just over 81 minutes to go, the No. 2 Team Redline with Michal Smidl behind the wheel managed to make their way back up to second as they passed the No. 36 Alpine Esports for the spot.
Moments later, a second Full Course Yellow fell for an incident involving the No. 86 GR Vecotr Esport LMP.
This would reset the field on pit stops as most teams opted to pit and take advantage of the slowed speeds. The race restarted with just under 75 minutes to go with the No. 1 Team Redline machine still out front, free pit stop in pocket, and the No. 20 Coanda Esports LMP now in second after staying out.
The No. 20 would pit for service just before the end of the hour, one of the handful of teams opting to switch back to slick tires early.
Both the No. 1 and No. 2 would react and pit for their own slicks as the race shifted into the hands of the other Porsche Coanda team, the No. 23, that had already opted for the slicks earlier on.
STRATEGIES REALIZED IN FINAL HOUR
With at least one pit stop left for each class, possibly two for the LMP class, the event moved into the final hour with much uncertainty surrounding which strategy would prevail in the LMP ranks.
Martin Krönke and the No. 23 Porsche Coanda LMP looked to have snookered the field, opting for the slicks during the Full Course Yellow while most others took more wet tires during the free stop.
The No. 53 AMG Team Williams Esports entry with Nikodem Wisniewski in the seat would also follow suit with the No. 23, providing huge help to the leaders as they battled the No. 1 Team Redline LMP for second spot.
For the battle in GTE, the No. 888 R8G Esports Ferrari wound up overcut by the No. 77 Proton Coanda on the final pit stop. Dayne Warren was back inside the No. 77 while Risto Kappet would be taking the No. 888 to the end of the event. The gap was about three seconds with just under 48 minutes remaining.
The track continued to dry out as the race neared 45 minutes to go, and with that, the chase was on for Jeffrey Rietveld in the No. 1 to try and catch up to Krönke in the No. 23. With 36 minutes to go, both the No. 23 and No. 53 came in to take their final pit stop, right on the cusp of fuel mileage.
Rietveld in the No. 1 was able to close the gap to just about two seconds before the No. 23 took that pit. The No. 1 stayed out as long as they could, finally pitting on the 123rd lap with just under 27 minutes remaining. The overcut gave the No. 1 team more than a 14 second advantage over the No. 23.
With 10 minutes to go in the race, the GTE field was shook when the No. 77 was forced to drive through the pits for not respecting the Full Course Yellow the prior hour. Warren drove his No. 77 Proton Coanda Porsche through the pits, handing the lead back to Kappet and the No. 888 R8G Esports Ferrari.
It wouldn’t be an easy win for Kappet, as the No. 95 Prodrive FYRA Esport Aston Martin with Lasse Sørensen in the seat was right on his heels with five minutes to go.
4 HOURS OF MONZA – LMP CLASS TOP 5 FINISHERS
| POS | CAR # | TEAM | DRIVERS | INTERVAL |
| 1 | 1 | Team Redline | Luke Bennett, Jeffrey Rietveld, Maximilian Benecke | 140 LAPS |
| 2 | 53 | AMG Team Williams Esports | Michael Romanidis, Nikodem Wisniewski, Jakub Brzezinski | +15.612 secs |
| 3 | 23 | Porsche Coanda | Joshua Rogers, Mack Bakkum, Martin Krönke | +18.709 secs |
| 4 | 4 | Floyd Vanwall-Burst | Tom Dillmann, Jernej Simončič, Jesper N. Pedersen | +42.588 secs |
| 5 | 20 | Porsche Coanda | Ayhancan Güven, Tommy Østgaard, Mitchell deJong | +42.781 secs |
4 HOURS OF MONZA – GTE CLASS TOP 5 FINISHERS
| POS | CAR # | TEAM | CAR (GTE) | DRIVERS | INTERVAL |
| 1 | 888 | R8G ESPORTS | Ferrari 488 | Alexander Smolyar, Timotej Andonovski, Risto Kappet | 128 LAPS |
| 2 | 95 | Prodrive FYRA Esport | Aston Martin Vantage | Lasse Sørensen, Lasse Bak, Mikkel Gade | +0.956 secs |
| 3 | 77 | Proton Coanda Esports | Porsche 911 RSR | Dayne Warren, Charlie Collins, Paschalis Gkergkis | +18.445 secs |
| 4 | 26 | SIM Maranello | Ferrari 488 | Lorenzo Arisi, Christian Malghera, Andrea Terzi | +31.700 secs |
| 5 | 71 | BMW Team Redline | BMW M8 | Chris Lulham, Kevin Siggy, Enzo Bonito | +1 LAP |
LMP CLASS STANDINGS AFTER RACE #2 – 4 HOURS OF MONZA
| POS | CAR # | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | 4 | Floyd Vanwall-Burst | 50 |
| 2 | 1 | Team Redline | 48 |
| 3 | 20 | Porsche Coanda | 28 |
| 4 | 8 | R8G ESPORTS | 27.5 |
| 5 | 53 | AMG Team Williams Esports | 27 |
GTE CLASS STANDINGS AFTER RACE #2 – 4 HOURS OF MONZA
| POS | CAR # | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | 99 | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 38.5 |
| 2 | 71 | BMW Team Redline | 33 |
| 3 | 51 | SF Velas Esports Team | 31 |
| 4 | 66 | SIMMSA Esports | 26 |
| 5 | 888 | R8G ESPORTS | 26 |
Le Mans Virtual Series 2022-23 Calendar
Round 1 – 8 Hours of Bahrain, Bahrain – 17th September 2022Round 2 – 4 Hours of Monza, Italy – 8th October 2022- Round 3 – 6 Hours of Spa, Belgium – 5th November 5 2022
- Round 4 – 500 Miles of Sebring, USA – 3rd December 2022
- Round 5 – 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual – 14th-15th January 2023
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