Realteam Racing on the podium at the 6 Hours of Monza

Esteban Garcia's team is not willing to step out of the podium of the FIA World Endurance Championship after a second place in Belgium and the first victory in Portugal! The Swiss team achieved another good result at the 6 Hours of Monza.

Esteban Garcia, Norman Nato and Loïc Duval finished third in the LMP2 Pro-Am class in the 6-hour race. A driver missed his braking and made contact with Loïc Duval and sent him back to last place in the first half hour of the race. But the three Realteam drivers used their experience to get back to the front.

"This FIA WEC race follows the one in ELMS we took part in a week earlier to prepare ourselves. We could have had a better car, but at the end of the day, Loïc, Norman and I did some good stints,which allowed us a good result" Esteban Garcia said.

Thanks to several overtakings happening during the race, the trio managed to climb back onto the podium, rewarding the team's efforts in this Italian round. We are halfway through the season, and the 6 Hours of Monza was good training for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which are just around the corner.

This is the first time that the FIA WEC Championship has made the trip to Monza, Italy, also known as the 'temple of speed', and the three free practice sessions allowed the team to prepare for the event, with lap times constantly evolving as the sessions progressed. The pace was confirmed in qualifying and the goal was achieved with a third place on the grid.

"Overall, we lacked a bit in the performance department, which is a situation we have seen since the beginning of the season, but we are giving our best. It's a shame that the Safety Car came at worstest time because we could have done better, it cancelled our strategy. This podium is a great reward, especially for the championship, and we are looking forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans from now", Norman Nato said.

After a dramatic first half hour, a Safety Car came at the wrong time and impacted the strategy—the second half of the race allowed the drivers to overtake each other, come back and fight for the lead. With such good results, the team is still leading in the LMP2 Pro-Am standings.

"We spent 10 days at Monza, we lacked a bit of performance to be at the top of our game, but on the good side, we think we figured out where the problem was coming from. We really pushed hard to get back on the podium after the collision—we didn't make any mistakes in the race, that's great. It's a shame that the Safety Car had a negative impact on our strategy. We're still leading the championship and we're going to Le Mans in a very good frame of mind", Loïc Duval declared.

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6 Hours of Monza LMP2 Pro-Am classification
1 - Racing Team Nederland - 200 laps
2 - DragonSpeed USA - 199 laps
3 - Realteam Racing - 199 laps

LMP2 Pro-Am Ranking
1 - Realteam Racing : 71 points
2 - Racing Team Nederland : 68 points
3 - DragonSpeed USA : 60 points