CORVETTE RACING AT MONZA: Front-Row Start for No. 33 Corvette

CORVETTE RACING AT MONZA: Front-Row Start for No. 33 Corvette

Edgar puts championship-leading entry P2 in Hyperpole; No. 34 to start 10th


MONZA, Lombardy, Italy (November 7, 2026) – TF Sport’s No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R will start its championship race from the front row of the LMGT3 grid in Sunday’s Six Hours of Monza for the FIA World Endurance Championship.


Jonny Edgar, the solo leader in the Drivers Championship, set a lap of 1:47.537 (120.484 mph) in the 10-minute Hyperpole session – only 0.014 seconds off the pole-winning time. In the 12-minute qualifying session for all LMGT3 cars, teammate Ben Keating was ninth-fastest as the No. 33 made Hyperpole for the second consecutive race.


It also was the second race in a row that both TF Sport Corvettes advanced to Hyperpole. The No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette will start 10th. Peter Dempsey set the fastest time in Q1 at 1:48.440 (119.490 mph) and swapped over to Salih Yoluc for the second session.


Qualifying was the first dry running of the week for the TF Corvettes and the full field of 35 cars. Persistent rain fell across the Monza area all day Friday, and the track remained damp for Saturday morning’s final practice.


Both Corvettes are part of a three-car fight for the LMGT3 championship heading to Sunday’s green flag. The yellow No. 33 of Edgar, Keating and Nicky Catsburg leads the Teams standings by 18 points and can claim the title with a sixth-place finish, no matter what any of their competitors do in the race. Their closest challenger – the No. 92 Porsche – will start the race from 11th on the grid and needs to finish either first or second to have a chance.


The red No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette of Dempsey, Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood is third in Drivers and Teams points heading to Monza. A victory Sunday would move Eastwood, Yoluc and Dempsey to at least second in the championship. They would take the title with the win plus a ninth-place finish for the No. 33.


TF Sport already claimed a championship earlier this year with a second consecutive LMGT3 title in the European Le Mans Series with Eastwood as one of its drivers.


Corvette Racing entries have only been to Monza twice in FIA WEC competition, but there were significant races in the program’s history. The first was a GTE Pro victory in 2022 for Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy – the team’s first WEC race win outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A year later back at Monza, Corvette Racing’s No. 33 Corvette C8.R of Catsburg, Keating and Nico Varrone wrapped up the GTE Am championship.


The Six Hours of Monza for the FIA World Endurance Championship is scheduled for 11 a.m. CET / 5 a.m. ET on Sunday. Live streaming coverage of the race plus timing and scoring is available through a subscription on FIA WEC Plus with additional live streaming on the HBO Max app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans also will provide live streaming audio coverage as well.


CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES


JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We’ve shown this season that qualifying isn’t the most important. It’s always nice to start at the front, though. The bigger positive for me with qualy being dry shows that we have good pace in the dry. Until now we had no idea where we would be on dry pace relative to everyone else. Personally I didn’t think we would be this strong relative to some other cars. That gives me a lot of confidence that we clearly have pretty similar pace to most of the cars and more so with the fact that we are starting second.

“From any position, something can happen at Turn One. You can’t control it but being in the front is safer than being in the mid-pack. You don’t really have anyone ahead; it’s just behind where you need to watch. Hopefully it’s a bit safer. We seem to be quite far ahead of the other people that we are racing for the championship so that’s great for us. The car felt really nice. We did a good job of judging how it was in the wet and trying to translate it to what we need in the dry. So that really helped us.”


BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Kudos to the team and Tyler (Neff, engineer). And I’ll say kudos to my experience of racing here in ’21, ’22 and ’23. This is the first dry lap we’ve had and I know that had to come in to at least having an idea of how to get around this track quickly. I was on the pole in ’22 so I know it can be done. I had one good lap and unfortunately I made a few mistakes in the others. I think I may have been able to improve but all it takes is the top-10 and I’m happy with that. I was thrilled to see the 92 is 11th and the 69 is not on pole. So that obviously helps us in the championship.”


NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R (after FP3): "I feel like it's not too bad. If I look at who is fast in the wet, where we are and where our main opponents are, I don't think it's too bad. It's important now in qualy that the BMW doesn't take pole. Compared to the Porsche, I think we are going to be OK and also when it's dry. I don't think we are in too much of a bad spot. The only thing I dislike, and everyone will say this, is that we've done no laps in the dry. The first lap in the race will be tough because of that. But everyone will say that. I have high hopes and feel like we will be in a good spot. For Ben, for sure doing the start is going to be tricky always at Monza for that reason. Whatever happens, we need to not be in an incident. That's clear. We need to keep it safe, score points and not have anything go on."


PETER DEMPSEY, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I think Q1 gave us very little information for the race. It was still damp and it was our first time on slicks, trying to get temperatures up and dealing with coolant on the track and traffic. So there’s not much to take from it other than getting some energy numbers to make us a bit more ready for dry conditions. Obviously delighted for both cars to get into Hyperpole and congrats on the 33 for getting P2. We had no dramas in Q2. Salih did a good job trying to get us a little higher. But he’s done an unreal job starting the races from P10. I have full confidence that he can drive us toward the front in the first double-stint.”


CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R (after FP3): "We're arguably a little more in the dark than we arrived! It seems in every practice session one time we are fast, one time the 33 is fast, one time somebody is strangely fast. When it's in these conditions and if you're on the right tire at the right time, you end up looking really good or really bad if you’re not. We did get a couple of laps in the dry yesterday but we ran just standard pressures just to see where we're at for the race. It obviously was still damp so we still kind of don’t have much clue as to where we really are. The Corvette is going down the straights pretty good, which is an important thing around Monza so that’s fantastic. So as it heats up things should keep coming toward us. The good thing is that with the prep that TF, Corvette and GM do that we come into these events as prepared as most. Just rocking up for the race blind is not a bad thing for us at all.


2026 FIA World Endurance Championship Points

LMGT3 Drivers Standings

1. Jonny Edgar – 92

2. Nicky Catsburg – 88

3. Richard Lietz/Riccardo Pera/Yasser Shahin – 74

4. Charlie Eastwood/Peter Dempsey/Salih Yoluc – 70

5. Ben Keating – 70


LMGT3 Teams Standings

1. No. 33 TF Sport – 92

2. No. 92 The Bend Manthey – 74

3. No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF – 70

4. No. 69 Team WRT – 66

5. No. 21 Vista AF Corse – 64


Corvette Racing at Monza (wins in bold)

2022: No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTE Pro


2023: No. 33 Corvette C8.R: Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nico Varrone – 4th in GTE Am


Ryan Smith