Ferrari driver Antonio Giovinazzi claimed high spot in qualifying for Sunday’s Imola World Endurance Championship spherical as Valentino Rossi took class pole in LMGT3.
Ferrari made it a very good day for the house crowd by following up on Rossi’s efficiency by blocking out the entrance row of the grid within the Hyperpole session for the quickest 10 automobiles within the preliminary qualifying interval.
Giovinazzi posted a 1m28.920s aboard the #51 manufacturing unit 499P Le Mans Hypercar to finish up with a margin of greater than seven tenths over the client Ferrari run by AF Corse and pushed by Robert Kubica. Kubica trailed Giovinazzi by eight tenths after the preliminary push laps, a subsequent enchancment to a 1m29.678s failing to bother the manufacturing unit automobile forward of him.
Second on the grid nonetheless represented a serious achievement for the privateer aspect of the AF group. It needed to rebuild the rear finish of the #83 Ferrari after an engine hearth in remaining free apply forward of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Ferrari, which notched up a 1-2-3 consequence on the WEC curtain-raiser in Qatar in February, didn’t benefit from the excellent day after ending up on the high of the order in all three apply durations. Antonio Fuoco, pole winner at Imola in 2024, did not make it by means of to the Hyperpole session after shedding a collection of laps to track-limit violations in opening qualifying.
BMW driver Dries Vanthoor, who had equalled Giovinazzi’s mark on the high of the occasions in FP2 on Friday afternoon, took the third quickest time. The Belgian ended up simply over a tenth behind Kubica within the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh on a 1m29.885s.
Toyota took fourth and fifth with its pair of GR010 HYBRID LMHs, Ryo Hirakawa enhancing to 1m30.042s to pip team-mate Nyck de Vries by only a thousandth of a second.
Mick Schumacher took sixth for Alpine on a 1m30.190s in his Signatech-run A424 LMDh after narrowly making it by means of to Hyperpole: he made a last-gasp enchancment after the chequered flag had fallen within the 12-minute opening session to leap into the highest 10.
Jean-Eric Vergne took seventh within the #93 Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMH with a 1m30.301s, which simply shaded the 1m30.305s from Charles Milesi within the second of the Alpines.
Alex Lynn claimed eighth within the quickest of the Cadillac V-Collection.R LMDhs after the automobile had been repaired following his off proper initially of FP3.
Reigning WEC drivers’ champion Kevin Estre ended up slowest in Hyperpole, half a second again from the Caddy.
#46 Crew WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Kelvin Van Der Linde
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath
Seven-time MotoGP conqueror Rossi, in the meantime, claimed his maiden LMGT3 pole driving the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo. He topped the category occasions in Hyperpole with a 1m42.355s, which gave him a margin of three tenths over Clemens Schmid’s 1m42.661s in the most effective of the Auto Sport Promotion Lexus RC F GT3s.
Rossi had set the preliminary tempo through the 10-minute session, just for an enchancment to be dominated out for a track-limits violation. That resulted within the BMW being bumped all the way down to fourth, earlier than an extra enchancment vaulted him again to the pinnacle of the order. Schmid would then have taken the pole with 1m42.326s, which he misplaced to trace limits.
Zach Robichon took third for the Coronary heart of Racing squad within the Hyperpole session fought out by the silver-rated driver in every LMGT3 line-up. The Canadian was only a tenth again from Schmid on a 1m42.703s aboard his Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Simon Mann claimed fourth aboard the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
The Imola 6 Hours, spherical two of the 2025 WEC, begins at 1pm native time on Sunday.
Learn Additionally:
On this article
Gary Watkins
WEC
Valentino Rossi
Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari
Crew WRT
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