The first qualifying session of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship ended with the Ferrari 499P number 51 at the front of the Hypercar field thanks to a lap from Antonio Giovinazzi that stopped the clock at 1 minute, 30 seconds and 127 thousandths. The margin over the Toyota TR010 number 8, driven at that moment by Ryō Hirakawa, was eleven thousandths, a gap that in practical terms is equivalent to less than half a meter at the finish line.

On the grid of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the AF Corse team placed both its factory cars among the top three, as Antonio Fuoco put the Ferrari number 50 in third place, forty thousandths off the reference time. Fourth place went to the Peugeot 9X8 number 94, driven by Malthe Jakobsen, whose time of 1m30.200s left him seventy-three thousandths from pole and ahead of the Cadillac number 12 driven by Norman Nato.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

The decisive ten-minute session brought together the ten fastest Hypercars from the initial twelve-minute qualifying session. That first cut was led by Fuoco with 1m30.088s, but the cut left out several names that under normal circumstances would have aspired to Hyperpole. The two Aston Martin Valkyrie cars, both Genesis Magma Racing cars, the Cadillac number 38, the Peugeot number 93, and the Alpine number 36 did not advance.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

In the LMGT3 class, the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of the Garage 59 team set the fastest time with Thomas Fleming at the wheel. The Briton, who had never competed in the WEC, stopped the clock at 1m41.181s and beat the Lexus RC F GT3 number 78 of Akkodis ASP, driven in that phase by Hadrien David, by two tenths and twenty-six hundredths. Third place went to the Lexus number 87 with Clemens Schmid at the wheel. The red flag appeared at the end of the session when the Corvette number 34, with Salih Yoluç at the wheel, ended up stuck in the gravel at Piratella.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

The Hypercar qualifying leaves an unusual statistic with four manufacturers compressed within a three-tenths interval. Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot and Cadillac occupied the top five positions with a level of parity not seen since the introduction of these prototypes. If that trend repeats on Sunday, the race will be decided by refueling efficiency, tire changes, and the ability to navigate dense GT3 traffic without losing precious seconds.

Peugeot achieved its best grid result since returning to the championship; the 9X8 number 94, which in 2025 went through a complex adaptation process due to its wingless aerodynamic configuration, will start fourth at Imola and is in qualifying pace on par with Ferrari and Toyota, something unthinkable just a year ago.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

Toyota, despite Hirakawa's second place, will have to manage from sixth position the other GR010 Hybrid, the number 7 driven by Nyck de Vries in Hyperpole. Alpine placed seventh with Charles Milesi, and BMW put both its M Hybrid V8s in the top ten with Robin Frijns and Kevin Magnussen, further widening the range of contenders with a chance to score important points in the season opener.

The case of Garage 59 in LMGT3 has a structural reading: McLaren reconfigured its presence in the World Endurance Championship for 2026. The operation of the GT3s moved from United Autosports to this British team, which already had experience with the Woking machines in championships such as the GT World Challenge Europe. The change is because United Autosports now concentrates its resources on the development of the McLaren LMDh, planned for 2027. That Fleming achieved pole on his first WEC qualifying attempt indicates that the transfer has not caused a loss of competitiveness.