WEC Imola 6 Hours: Ferrari the team to beat in Hypercars ahead of first qualifying of the season

Today, after the morning FP3 session 10h00 local time, at 14h30 the first WEC Qualifying session of the year takes place after the original season opener in Qatar was postponed.

Imola is a stone's throw from Maranello thus no surprise reigning world Champions Ferrari will be strutting their stuff as favourites, but signs are it will not be a walk in the park for the local heroes at the Autodromo named after Enzo & Dino Ferrari.

On Friday, the first official track action of the new WEC campaign began in warm spring sunshine at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, with 14 manufacturers and 35 entries taking to the circuit for a packed Friday programme.

AF Corse’s #83 Ferrari, shared by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson, continued its remarkable Imola habit by topping FP1 for the third year in a row. Kubica set the pace with a 1:31.739, just 0.023 clear of Antonio Fuoco in the factory #50 Ferrari, while the #51 sister car of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi completed a Ferrari top 3.

That early dominance underlined Ferrari’s strength on home ground, with the crowd roaring on the Prancing Horse as it locked out the first 3 places in the 90 minute session.

The best of the rest in FP1 was the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V Series.R, fourth in the hands of Will Stevens and Norman Nato. Cadillac is missing regular team mate Alex Lynn for the opening 2 races of the season due to scheduled neck surgery, making that result a solid start.

Peugeot also began strongly, placing its 2 9X8 Hypercars in fifth and sixth. The #94 car of Loïc Duval, Théo Pourchaire and Malthe Jakobsen led the sister #93 of Paul di Resta, Stoffel Vandoorne and newcomer Nick Cassidy. Toyota followed in seventh with Sébastien Buemi in the #8 TR010 Hybrid, as the revised car prepares for its race debut on Sunday and the manufacturer’s 100th WEC start.

If FP1 belonged to Ferrari, FP2 shifted the balance. Charles Milesi produced the standout lap of the day in the #35 Alpine A424, stopping the clocks at 1:31.122 and vaulting Alpine to the top of the order ahead of Sunday’s season opener.

That effort was 0.6 quicker than Kubica’s FP1 benchmark and served notice that Alpine could be a serious threat this weekend after its strong showing at Imola 12 months ago.

Toyota remained firmly in the hunt. Nyck de Vries set the second best time in the #7 TR010 Hybrid, confirming the encouraging early signs from the heavily updated car. Ferrari dropped to third and fourth in the afternoon, with the 2 factory 499Ps split by just 0.061.

Peugeot backed up its morning form with fifth, while BMW made a step forward in FP2 as the #20 M Hybrid V8 driven this weekend by René Rast and Robin Frijns rose to sixth. The morning topping #83 AF Corse Ferrari was seventh, ahead of the first Aston Martin Valkyrie, the #007 of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble.

The numbers show just how intense the Hypercar fight has become. Only 0.984 covered the top 14 cars in FP2, while Genesis Magma Racing’s new GMR 001 finished its first competitive WEC day in 15th and 16th overall and, significantly, got to within 1.4 of the outright pace with André Lotterer at the wheel.

Cadillac, by contrast, slipped back in the second session and could manage only 11th and 14th, leaving work to do overnight.

LMGT3 also produced 2 different headlines across the day. In FP1, Racing Team Turkey by TF emerged on top as Charlie Eastwood set the benchmark in the #34 Corvette with a 1:42.678.

Eastwood’s lap put the car 0.170 clear of Finn Gehrsitz in the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, while local favourite Mattia Drudi thrilled nearby home support by taking third in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. The #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari was fourth, with the second Garage 59 McLaren and the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin completing the top 6.

The session was briefly interrupted by 2 Full Course Yellows. The first came after Antares Au beached the #10 Garage 59 McLaren in the gravel at Tamburello, while the second followed after a bollard was displaced at Variante Alta.

FP2 brought a different shape to LMGT3. FIA WEC newcomer Kobe Pauwels produced a superb 1:42.081 in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin to go quickest, just 0.070 ahead of Hadrien David in the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus.

That left Aston Martin and Lexus almost inseparable at the top, with the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and the second Akkodis Lexus close behind. TF Sport remained competitive with the #33 Corvette in fifth, while the FP1 topping #34 Corvette recovered from a suspected water pressure issue to climb to sixth after losing a large part of the session in the pits.

Friday therefore ended with no clear overall favourite. Ferrari showed it has the raw speed to excite the home crowd, but Alpine’s late statement and Toyota’s consistency suggest Imola’s opening WEC weekend could already be shaping into a multi manufacturer fight.