WEC Imola: Ferrari snatches pole from Toyota

Antonio Giovinazzi snatched pole position for Ferrari after the chequered flag had fallen in final qualifying for Sunday’s World Endurance Championship curtain-raiser at Imola.

The Italian reprised his pole of last year in the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar with a 1m30.127s that propelled him from third to the top of the times as the 10-minute Hyperpole session climaxed.

His lap eclipsed the 1m30.138s with which the #8 Toyota TR010 HYBIRD sat atop the times in Ryo Hirakawa’s hands by just one hundredth of a second.

The second of the AF Corse-run Ferrari factory Hypercar entries took third on the grid for the Imola 6 Hours with Antonio Fuoco.

Ferrari’s #50 entry ended up on 1m30.167s after earlier going quickest in Fuoco’s hands during the first round of qualifying lasting 12 minutes.

Peugeot made it four cars within four hundredths after Malthe Jakobsen set a 1m30.200s in the best of the French manufacturer’s 9X8 2024 LMHs.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TR010: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa (Photo by: Paul Foster)

Cadillac and the Jota team took fifth with 1m30.419s from Norman Nato aboard its #12 car, while the #7 Toyota claimed sixth with Nyck de Vries setting a 1m30.432s.

Charles Milesi ended up seventh in the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh, just ahead of Ferrari’s satellite entry driven by Robert Kubica.

The two BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs run by the WRT team rounded out the top 10 in the hands of Robin Frijns and Kevin Magnussen.

Neither Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH run by The Heart of Racing team made it into Hyperpole for the fastest 10 cars in the opening qualifying session, Harry Tincknell missing out by less than two tenths in the #007 car.

The two Genesis GMR-001 LMDhs qualified by Mathieu Jaminet and Andre Lotterer brought up the rear of the field in the 12-minute session, the Frenchman ending up 1.7s from Fuoco’s best.

Garage 59 claims LMGT3 pole on debut

#10 Garage 59 McLaren 720s GT3 EVO: Antares Au, Thomas Fleming, Marvin Kirchhofer (Photo by: Paul Foster)

Briton Thomas Fleming took pole position in LMGT3 on his series debut with the Garage 59 McLaren team.

The 23-year-old headed the times for the majority of the Hyperpole session for the silver-rated driver in each car line-up aboard the #10 McLaren 720S Evo.

Fleming’s 1m41.181s gave him a margin of two tenths over second-placed #78 Lexus RC F GT3 driven by Hadrien David, who ended up 1m41.407s.

Third place went to the second of the Auto Sport Promotion-run Lexuses in the hands of Clemens Schmid.

The Hyperpole session was red-flagged as the chequered flag was about to be shown as a result of spin for the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Salih Yoluc.

Race returnee Peter Dempsey had earlier led the way in the #34 Corvette throughout the opening qualifying session for the bronze drivers.

The Imola 6 Hours, which became the 2026 WEC series opener after the postponement of the Qatar round scheduled for March, starts at 13:00 local time on Sunday.

Hypercar - Hyperpole results

All Stats

Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	51	A. Pier Guidi J. Calado A. Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	8	1'30.127		196.083
2	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	8	S. Buemi B. Hartley R. Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	7	+0.011 1'30.138	0.011	196.059
3	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	50	A. Fuoco M. Molina N. Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	7	+0.040 1'30.167	0.029	195.996
4	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	94	L. Duval M. Jakobsen T. Pourchaire	Peugeot 9X8	7	+0.073 1'30.200	0.033	195.924
5	Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR	12	W. Stevens N. Nato	Cadillac V-Series.R	6	+0.292 1'30.419	0.219	195.450
6	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	7	M. Conway K. Kobayashi N. de Vries	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	7	+0.305 1'30.432	0.013	195.421
7	Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR	35	A. Felix da Costa C. Milesi F. Habsburg	Alpine A424	8	+0.342 1'30.469	0.037	195.342
8	AF Corse HYPERCAR	83	Y. Yifei R. Kubica P. Hanson	Ferrari 499P	7	+0.381 1'30.508	0.039	195.257
9	BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR	20	R. Frijns R. Rast	BMW M Hybrid V8	8	+0.491 1'30.618	0.110	195.020
10	BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR	15	K. Magnussen R. Marciello	BMW M Hybrid V8	8	+0.674 1'30.801	0.183	194.627
View full results

LMGT3 - Hyperpole results

All Stats

Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	Garage 59 LMGT3	10	A. Au T. Fleming M. Kirchhofer	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	6	1'41.181		174.661
2	AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3	78	T. Rompuy H. David E. Masson	Lexus RC F GT3	6	+0.226 1'41.407	0.226	174.271
3	AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3	87	R. Umbrarescu C. Schmid J. Lopez	Lexus RC F GT3	6	+0.364 1'41.545	0.138	174.035
4	TEAM WRT LMGT3	69	A. McIntosh P. Thompson D. Harper	BMW M4 GT3 Evo	6	+0.410 1'41.591	0.046	173.956
5	TEAM WRT LMGT3	32	D. Leung S. Gelael A. Farfus	BMW M4 GT3 Evo	6	+0.631 1'41.812	0.221	173.578
6	IRON LYNX LMGT3	61	M. Berry R. Andrade M. Martin	Mercedes AMG GT3	6	+0.911 1'42.092	0.280	173.102
7	Vista AF Corse LMGT3	21	F. Heriau S. Mann A. Rovera	Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo	6	+1.049 1'42.230	0.138	172.869
8	Manthey DK Engineering LMGT3	91	J. Cottingham T. Boguslavskiy A. Güven	Porsche 911 GT3 R	6	+1.084 1'42.265	0.035	172.809
9	Proton Competition LMGT3	88	S. Gattuso G. Levorato L. Sargeant	Ford Mustang GT3	6	+1.254 1'42.435	0.170	172.523
10	Racing Team Turkey by TF LMGT3	34	P. Dempsey S. Yoluc C. Eastwood	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	6	+2.314 1'43.495	1.060	170.756
View full results