Ferrari dominates qualifying at Imola: 1-2-3 in the WEC

Ferrari achieved absolute dominance during the qualifying session at their home track in Imola during the World Endurance Championship on Sunday.

Antonio Fuoco set two laps fast enough to secure pole position aboard the #50 factory Ferrari 499P in the 10-minute Hyperpole session. The Italian took the lead with a time of 1m29.735s before improving to 1m29.466s at the end. Robert Shwartzman secured the second position, only bested by Ferrari's factory cars. His time of 1m29.885s was less than a tenth ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 factory car, which finished at 1m29.953s.

Behind the Ferraris, Kevin Estre in the Porsche 963 LMDh #6 managed the best time among non-Ferraris, finishing six-tenths off the pole. Matt Campbell followed in fifth place despite a spin at Tamburello at the start of the session in the second Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Kamui Kobayashi took sixth place for Toyota, while Rene Rast jumped to seventh place in the sole BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh of WRT that made it to the Hyperpole session. The German narrowly edged out Brendon Hartley in the second Toyota with a 1m30.600s.

Callum Illot and Julien Andlauer rounded out the top ten in their respective private Porsches from Jota and Proton Competition. Only four manufacturers advanced to the Hyperpole session from the initial qualifying.

In LMGT3, Aliaksandr Malykhin took pole position aboard the Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3-R, beating Ian James in the Aston Martin from Heart of Racing by nearly seven tenths.

The SC63 LMDh of Lamborghini Iron Lynx was placed 16th in the hands of Mirko Bortolotti, ahead of the pair of Alpine A424 LMDh qualified by Nicolas Lapierre and Paul-Loup Chatin.

The 6 Hours of Imola, the second round of the WEC 2024, starts at 13:00 on Sunday.