World Champions and triple Le Mans winners over the past three seasons, Ferrari dominated the long awaited first official day of World Endurance Championship action in longer than most care to remember, in preparation for Sunday’s race, and the rest of the season.
The red, yellow and red latest spec Ferrari 499Ps rattled out a sobering 1-2-3 for their rivals to ponder at the Bologna racetrack.
For the rest, BMW and Alpine continued their good late season form. The Bavarian outfit’s wider-mouthed new number 20 M Hybrid V8 was half a second back in fourth Robin Frijns’s hands. French team Alpine’s Jules Gounon and Charles Miles followed in a very close fifth and sixth with Loic Duval seventh in the quickest Peugeot 9X8 LMH.
Kevin Magnussen ended eighth despite an engine change in the 15 BMW from Sebastien Buemi in the best of the new-look Toyotas. Were they sandbagging? The second Peugeot and Toyota were next up from the best Aston Martin after the sister car crashed heavily. Quick in the morning, the Cadillacs followed from newcomer Genesis’s two cars.
Mattia Drudi’s Aston Martin Vantage topped the LMGT3 Prologue, five-hundreths of a second quicker than Alessio Rovera’s Ferrari 296. Thomas Fleming’s McLaren 720S, edged Charlie Eastwood and Jonny Edgar Corvettes for third ahead of Parker Thompson’s BMW M3.
With the resumption of this dubious Formula 1 season still over a fortnight a fortnight off and WEC practice Friday, qualifying Saturday and the race 13h00 European central time this Sunday 19 April, there’s many a good reason why the Tifosi should tune into the Imola 6 Hour.
Track action at Imola starts with free practice on Friday, 17 April. Qualifying – and the all-important Hyperpole top ten shootout – starts at 14:30 CEST on Saturday, 18 April, with the six-hour race getting underway at 13:00 CEST on Sunday, 19 April.
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