WEC: Ferrari and Rossi steal the show in Imola qualifying

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 RECORDAntonio Giovinazzi remained undefeated in Hyperpole within the FIA WEC this 12 months. 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 all the time a super-nice feeling to qualify in entrance of all of the tifosi at our house race,” enthused the 31-year-old. “I have to thank the workforce. The automotive had been improbable since FP1. I used to be actually scared about monitor limits, however I attempted to place all of it collectively in qualifying and in Hyperpole. The best lap is all the time troublesome to attain, however I believe we did an amazing job immediately.”

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 exceptional consequence for a automotive that had misplaced a lot of the sooner FP3 session as a consequence of a mechanical challenge.

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 additional two-tenths of a second adrift. The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing entries have 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 inserting 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 remaining observe – dug deep to say ninth within the rebuilt #12 Cadillac Hertz Group JOTA V-Collection.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 12 months’s pole-sitter at Imola – was stripped of his place in Hyperpole as a consequence of a monitor 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 POLEBarely 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 monitor 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 in the end no one else may match, elevating BMW’s hopes of replicating its Imola victory from 12 months in the past.

“The monitor limits state of affairs is difficult – there are a variety of locations the place, for those who push too laborious, it may be an issue, and I’m superb at monitor limits – I can do them rather a lot!” Rossi joked. “I additionally had various strain from Ahmad [Al-Harthy], as a result of he did a improbable lap within the first a part of qualifying. I did one other monitor restrict [violation], however happily, the automotive was robust and I had sufficient grip to attempt once more and managed to enhance.

“Pole is a improbable achievement and I’m very completely satisfied, particularly after the primary race which was a bit harder. The workforce 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 battle for the win.”

The a number of MotoGP world champion in the end completed slightly 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 type in 2025. Zacharie Robichon accomplished the highest three in Coronary heart of Racing’s Aston Martin, whereas Qatar winner Ben Keating may 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).