Ferrari on pole for WEC in Imola, Rossi first in LMGT3
- Aaron Carroll
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll
The No.51 Ferrari driven by Antionio Giovinazzi has taken pole for the WEC (World Endurance Championship) 6 Hours of Imola. Valentino Rossi also took pole in the LMGT3 class.
Qualifying got underway at 2:30 pm local time, but that wasn't before an interrupted Free Practice 3 (FP3) earlier in the morning.
Early in the session Cadillac No.12 driver Alex Lynn lost the car over a bump and went careening into the barriers, bringing out the sessions first red flag with heavy damage to the front of the Hertz Team Jota car.
There was trouble for Robert Kubica in the No.83 yellow Ferrari. Fire spitting out of the back of the car after a gearbox failure for the polish driver.
However, both cars made it out for qualifying with no delays with some pressive work by both the Jota and AF Corse crews.
We started off qualifying itself with the LMGT3 qualifying session, with the top ten cars moving through to hyperpole.
Throughout the session, many cars topped the timing tower at different stages, with all of the 18 cars constantly improving their lap times. Ahmad Al-Harthy set a lap time of a 1:42.7 and that was good enough to allow the No.46 BMW driver to pit early.
The No.87 Lexus and No.54 Ferrari were the first to take the checkered flag, both just making it into hyperpole. The No.77 Mustang and No.60 Mercedes followed, neither making it into the top ten.
More and more cars crossed the line and bailed from their laps. In the end the No.54 Ferrari, No.31 BMW, No.77 Mustang, No.85 Porsche, No.10 Aston Martin, No.33 Corvette and both the No.60 and No.61 Mercedes' were all knocked out of the first part of qualifying.
Notably on that list was the Qatar race winning No.33 Corvette, not good form for veteran Ben Keating. Also out was the No.85 Iron Dames, a new low for a team running on a high from their win in the ELMS (European Le Mans Series) in Barcelona.
After a first session of only bronze drivers, the silver drivers took to the wheel of the LMGT3's for hyperpole.
The first person out with a lap time was home favourite Valentino Rossi in the No.46 WRT BMW. With the lap being set on less than optimal tyre temperatures, Rossi quickly bested his own time, while the rest of the field took time to warm their tyres up before pushing.
The No.81, No.27, No.95, No.92, No.88 and No.78 all got within a second but the No.87 Lexus was the one to top Rossi, before the No.27 Aston slotted up to second.
Simon Mann in the No.21 Ferrari went third, before Rossi managed to ace the final sector and topped the timing sheets again by three tenths of a second. With 40 seconds left in the session, Clemens Schmid in the No.87 Lexus was purple in sector one and two but got his lapped deleted.
Valentino Rossi kept his top time, as no one else was able to improve. The pair of Lexus' finished second and fifth, being split by the No.27 Aston Martin and the No.21 Ferrari.
LMGT3 - Hyperpole - Top 5
1st No.46 WRT BMW - 1:42.355
2nd No.87 Akkodis ASP Lexus - +0.306
3rd No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin - +0.348
4th No.21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari - +0.565
5th No.78 Akkodis ASP Lexus - +0.777
All eyes then turned to the Hypercars, who took their turn to come to the track and set the grid for tomorrows race.
Dries Vanthoor in the No.15 BMW went to the top early on as cars ran different tyre warm up plans, some taking an extra warm up lap. Times began to tumble with five minutes to go, BMW and both factory Ferrari's holding the top spot in a short period of time.
The No.51 of Antonio Giovinazzi was seven tenths quicker than anyone, with the No.15 BMW and No.83 Ferrari behind. Charles Milesi had a small moment, taking a trip to the gravel trap, but he rejoined the track safely.
Notably in the drop zone was the No.50, who had their lap time deleted for track limits, and the No.20 BMW for the same reason. Fuoco in the No.50 had no issues taking the car back up to third, dropping Julian Andlauer in the No.5 Porsche into 11th.
The No.36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher jumped to seventh, knocking the No.94 Peugeot into the drop zone as the checkered flag flew.
The No.93 sister Peugeot could only manage 11th, with the No.94 12th, No.5 Penske Porsche only 13th, followed by the No.20 BMW, No.99 Proton Porsche, No.38 Cadillac and then the pair of Aston Martin Valkyries rounding out the field, as the cars came in.
That wouldn't be the final order however, as the No.50 Ferrari had its lap time deleted dropping to last place. This allowed the No.93 Peugeot to jump into Hyperpole.
The cars came out again for hyperpole, and it was a similar story to the first session with regards to tyre warm up, cars taking multiple laps before getting their push laps in.
The first competitive lap time came from Dries Vanthoor in the No.15 BMW, before being quickly displaced by Giovinazzi in the No.51 Ferrari. The No.83 followed suit, slotting into second.
The pair of Toyotas went to fourth and fifth with the No.7 ahead of No.8, before Mick Schumacher split the two in his No.36 Alpine. The sister No.35 Alpine had another off at turn two, Charles Milesi making the same mistake he did in the first qualifying session.
The No.51 set a 1:28.9 with just over a minute remaining, leaving Giovinazzi over eight tenths quicker than anyone else as we neared the end of the session.
No one could stand to beat that time, with the No.51 taking pole for the 6 Hours of Imola.
Hypercar - Hyperpole - Top 10
1st No.51 AF Corse Ferrari - 1:28.920
2nd No.83 AF Corse Ferrari - +0.758
3rd No.15 WRT BMW - +0.965
4th No.8 Toyota Gazoo - +1.122
5th No.7 Toyota Gazoo - +1.123
6th No.36 Alpine - +1.270
7th No.93 Peugeot - +1.381
8th No.35 Alpine - +1.385
9th No.12 Jota Cadillac - +1.528
10th No.6 Penske Porsche - +1.895
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