It was a day for the house heroes in qualifying for the 6 Hours of Imola, spherical two of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship marketing campaign, as Ferrari and Valentino Rossi thrilled the ever enthusiastic tifosi by claiming pole place within the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes respectively.
GIOVINAZZI MAINTAINES PERFECT HYPERPOLE RECORD
Antonio Giovinazzi remained undefeated in Hyperpole within the FIA WEC this yr. Within the Qatar curtain-raiser, the Italian topped the timesheets by 0.136 seconds. On the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, he prolonged that margin to a powerful 0.758 seconds, as none of his rivals managed to carry a candle to his extraordinary effort.
“It’s at all times a super-nice feeling to qualify in entrance of all of the tifosi at our dwelling race,” enthused the 31-year-old. “I have to thank the crew. The automotive had been incredible since FP1. I used to be actually scared about observe limits, however I attempted to place all of it collectively in qualifying and in Hyperpole. The best lap is at all times troublesome to attain, however I believe we did an excellent job right now.”
The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P Hypercar was duly set to begin on the entrance of the sector for the second race in succession, with the #83 AF Corse entry alongside, piloted in qualifying by Robert Kubica. That marked a outstanding outcome for a automotive that had misplaced a lot of the sooner FP3 session resulting from a mechanical situation.
BMW M Group WRT as soon as once more proved best-of-the-rest, with Dries Vanthoor securing third on the grid behind the wheel of the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, an extra two-tenths of a second adrift. The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing entries had been extraordinarily evenly matched in fourth and fifth – Ryō Hirakawa and Nyck de Vries separated by a scant 0.001 seconds in favour of the previous – with Mick Schumacher putting a robust sixth for Alpine Endurance Group.
Jean-Éric Vergne took seventh for Group Peugeot TotalEnergies’ 9X8, forward of Charles Milesi within the second Alpine A424 – the Frenchman enduring a few gravelly moments through the session.
Alex Lynn – recovering from a crash throughout closing apply – dug deep to assert ninth within the rebuilt #12 Cadillac Hertz Group JOTA V-Sequence.R, with defending champion Kévin Estre rounding out the highest ten, as Porsche Penske Motorsport continued to wrestle.
Misfortune struck the #50 Ferrari AF Corse entry, as Antonio Fuoco – final yr’s pole-sitter at Imola – was stripped of his place in Hyperpole resulting from a observe limits infringement. The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning crew would start tomorrow’s six-hour race from 18th and final on the Hypercar grid.
LOCAL LEGEND ROSSI DELIVERS SENSATIONAL LMGT3 POLE
Barely half an hour earlier than Giovinazzi’s Hypercar heroics, Valentino Rossi had already despatched the 1000’s of spectators thronging the grandstands into rapture by storming to his and BMW’s first pole place within the fiercely-contested LMGT3 class.
Group-mate Ahmad Al-Harthy laid the foundations with a monster lap of his personal behind the wheel of the #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO within the first a part of the session, with Rossi then sustaining that momentum within the subsequent Hyperpole shootout.
Regardless of dropping a lap to a observe limits infringement, ‘The Physician’ remained an element all through the ten-minute showdown, mastering the 4.909km Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari with a stellar effort that finally no person else might match, elevating BMW’s hopes of replicating its Imola victory from 12 months in the past.
“The observe limits state of affairs is hard – there are quite a lot of locations the place, should you push too onerous, it may be an issue, and I’m excellent at observe limits – I can do them lots!” Rossi joked. “I additionally had numerous stress from Ahmad [Al-Harthy], as a result of he did a incredible lap within the first a part of qualifying. I did one other observe restrict [violation], however happily, the automotive was sturdy and I had sufficient grip to strive once more and managed to enhance.
“Pole is a incredible achievement and I’m very comfortable, particularly after the primary race which was a bit tougher. The crew and BMW did an excellent job, and to do that right here at Imola with all of the followers is so particular. Tomorrow, we hope to combat for the win.”
The a number of MotoGP world champion finally completed just below a 3rd of a second away from Clemens Schmid within the main Akkodis ASP Group Lexus, with the Japanese sportscar persevering with to indicate much-improved kind in 2025. Zacharie Robichon accomplished the highest three in Coronary heart of Racing’s Aston Martin, whereas Qatar winner Ben Keating might do no higher than sixteenth in TF Sport’s Corvette.
The 6 Hours of Imola is scheduled to start at 13:00 CET tomorrow (20 April).
