WEC News: Fuoco leads Ferrari 1-2-3 in Imola qualifying

Ferrari’s trio of 499Ps put in a dominant performance during today’s FIA WEC Qualifying sessions on home soil in Imola, finishing 1-2-3 in Hypercar Hyperpole.

The Italian brand’s charge was led by Antonio Fuoco in the #50 499P, who snatched pole position by four-tenths with a rapid 1:29.466 to lap the circuit more than a second quicker than anyone in practice.

“It was amazing. To be P1-2-3 in front of the Tifosi. We now have to do our best tomorrow,” said Fuoco after the session.

Behind, the #83 privately-funded Ferrari took second after a standout drive from Robert Shwartzman, who also dipped into the 1:29s with a time fractionally quicker than Alessandro Pier Guidi in the sister #51 factory car that ended up third.

The trio of Ferrari 499Ps were the only cars to set sub 1:30 laps. Best of the rest were the two factory Porsche 963s, which ended up fourth and fifth, the #6 and #5 sixth and nine-tenths shy of pole respectively.

Toyota pushed hard with its GR010 HYBRIDs, but Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 could only manage sixth, while Brendon Hartley ended up losing a fast lap to a spin at Turn 7 and ended up eighth.

The Qualifying session for the Hypercars prior to Hyperpole eliminated a number of significant cars. On the wrong side of the cut-off line were the #38 HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche and Cadillac V-Series.R which will start 11th and 12th.

Both new Peugeot 9X8s and the two Alpines also failed to make it into the fight for pole position, as did the Lamborghini SC63 and Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6-C ahead of their home race.

“We are happy to be here with the new car but we can see the pace in Imola is very fast. We would loved to have been in Hyperpole but we are focused on the race,” Jean-Marc Finot, the vice president of Stellantis Motorsport said.

The Qualifying session was interrupted by a spinning Dries Vanthoor in the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, his error causing a red flag with just under two minutes remaining, setting up a dash to set a final flying lap.

Vanthoor and his teammates Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann will start 13th, as he was not allowed to rejoin the session and attempt to improve his time.

Prior to the Hypercar sessions, the Qatar-winning Manthey Pure Racing Porsche took pole after a dominant performance from Alex Malykhin in Hyperpole.

The Belarusian set a 1:42.365 to go almost seven-tenths quicker than the other Bronze drivers that made it into the Top 10 shootout.

“It’s a really good day for us,” said Malykhin, whose performance was particularly impressive considering the Pure Racing Porsche is carrying success ballast for winning in Qatar.

“All my laps were clean and the team did a great job setting up the car.”

Ian James came closest in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. He set a 1:43.058 to take the second spot on the front row, coincidentally in the car that finished second behind the #92 Porsche in Round 1.

The two WRT BMW M4 GT3s were next, with Ahmad Al Harthy putting the #46 crew third with a 1:43.099. He will start alongside Darren Leung who set a near-identical time in the #31 sister car.

The third row on the grid in LMGT3 will be occupied by the Iron Dames Lamborghini and #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang after efforts from Sarah Bovy and Giorgio Roda respectively.

Prior to Hyperpole for the 18 LMGT3 cars, the big headline was the lack of pace from TF Sport’s Corvettes in the first session, which were quick throughout practice but failed to get into the top 10.

The #81 Z06 LMGT3.R of Qatar pole-winner Tom Van Rompuy ended up 11th, missing the cut by under two tenths, while the #82 ended up 13th.

“This weekend we don’t have the package to go for pole, but let’s hope we have good race pace,” admitted a disappointed Van Rompuy after the session.

“It’s the opposite to last time where we had good qualifying pace but struggled with race pace and technical issues.”

Other notable drivers that failed to make it to the shootout were Proton Competition’s Ryan Hardwick, D’Station Racing’s Clement Mateu and both Bronze drivers in the AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F GT3s.

Top-10 Qualifying