Forty-two crews at the start for the European championship, with an Italian representation of 12 drivers on the starting grid. Also on the track were the cars of the Ligier European Series, Mitjet Italia and Michelin Le Mans Cup.

The European Le Mans Series officially opens the two weeks dedicated to endurance races at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. From Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd July the European championship drivers will warm up the audience of the Temple of Speed with the ELMS 4 Hours of Monza, the third seasonal round of the series. The event anticipates the round of the World Endurance Championship which will take place from 8 to 10 July with the WEC 6 Hours of Monza. An unmissable beginning of the month for Endurance enthusiasts.

At the start of the 4 Hours of Monza next weekend, there will be 28 teams for a total of 42 crews, divided into the LMP2, LMP3 and LMGTE classes. In addition to the ELMS, three support series will take to the track: Michelin Le Mans Cup, Ligier European Series and Mitjet Italia. There will therefore be a total of 8 matches that fans will be able to follow from the stands between Friday 1 and Sunday 3 July.

At the top of the overall and LMP2 rankings is the Italian team Prema Racing, which has won the victory in both races held so far this season. After the successes at Le Castellet and Imola, Louis Deletraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and the home driver Lorenzo Colombo will try to repeat themselves also in Monza and to hit the trio, trying to beat fierce competition.

The trio at the top of the ranking will have to contend with the other 16 cars starting in LMP2, among which the presence of the Panis Racing team, already triumphant on the Brianza track in 2021 and which will present an unchanged line-up at Monza compared to the two previous appointments with Julien Canal, Nicolas Jamin and Job Van Uitert.

In the LMP3 class, which sees the participation of 13 cars, Malthe Jakobsen, Maurice Smith and Michael Benham arrive at Monza with 11 points clear of the first rivals. The three driving the Ligier JS P320 – Nissan of the Cool Racing team currently precede the United Autosports team in the category classification, which comes to the Brianza stage with two crews on the starting grid.

The fight for the top position in the LMGTE class is even tighter, where three cars are currently paired on 26 points. Among these, there is also one of the seven Ferraris competing for the Championship, the F488 GTE EVO of the Rinaldi Racing team driven by Gabriele Lancieri, Pierre Ehret and Nicolas Varrone. The two Aston Martin Vantage AMRs of Team Oman Racing With TF Sport also have the same score.

The representation of Italian drivers at the start of the 4 Hours of Monza will be significant, with 12 drivers. In addition to the aforementioned Colombo and Lancieri, at the top of the standings in their classes, the participation of Alessio Rovera in the AF Corse Team and of Sergio Campana and Francesco Dracone in the BHK Motorsport team should be noted among the LMP2s.

The Italian flag also stands out among the LMGTEs, a category that has eight local drivers. Fabrizio Crestani races for Rinaldi Racing, while Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni will complete, together with Christian Reid, the line-up of one of the two cars of the Proton Competition team. Giacomo Petrobelli will instead be on track for JMW Motorsport, while Iron Lynx presents a triptych formed by Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Davide Rigon.

Track activity will start tomorrow, Thursday, with the Collective Tests for both the ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup drivers. The 42 ELMS crews have two free practice sessions scheduled, one on Friday at 11am. : 40 and the other Saturday at 9. The poleman will decide with three qualifying heats, one for each of the three categories, of 10 minutes each. The LMGTEs will go into action on Saturday at 1:40 pm, followed by the LMP3 at 2 pm and the LMP2 at 2:20 pm. The race will start on Sunday at 11:30.

The Italian anthem that will precede the traffic lights going off will be sung by Carola Campagna, an emerging talent of the Italian music scene who has demonstrated her talent in the talent All Together Now of Canale 5 and The Voice of Rai2. Instead, the youtuber and influencer Davide Cironi will give the start and wave the final checkered flag. The public will also be able to stay in close contact with the cars and drivers. The latter will grant fans autographs at 9:30 on Sunday in the pitlane while at 10:35 it will be possible for all fans to enter the starting grid.

The support series program is also full, with the Ligier European Series, Mitjet Italia and Michelin Le Mans Cup races. Ligier European Series , a single-make championship now in its third edition, two races (60 minutes + 1 lap) will run in the Temple of Speed respectively at 11:25 and 14:50 on Saturday. Four races for Mitjet Italia : two on Saturdays (at 10:45 and 16:10) and two on Sundays (at 9 and 16), lasting 20 minutes. On the other hand, the cars of the Michelin Le Mans Cup will compete only once with a competition of 110 minutes at 5:10 pm.

The public will be able to access the Circuit for free on Friday 1 July, paying only for the internal parking, while the purchase of the ticket is foreseen for Saturday and Sunday. Fans will also have access to the Fan Zone located in the Garden area where games, driving simulators, augmented reality viewers and corners with championship and Autodrome merchandising will be installed. The choice of street food will also be wide thanks to the refreshment area. The complete program of the event and more information are on the dedicated page ELMS – 4 Hours of Monza . (fm)