Fuoco Spearheads Ferrari 1-2-3 in Imola Qualifying

Antonio Fuoco stormed to pole position for the 6 Hours of Imola in a Ferrari-dominated qualifying session that saw the Prancing Horse sweep the overall top three positions.

Fuoco reeled off a 1:29.466 aboard the No. 50 Ferrari 499P to outpace the No. 83 car of Robert Shwartzman by 0.419 seconds, while Alessandro Pier Guidi slotted into third a further 0.069 seconds back in third place aboard the No. 51 car.

Kevin Estre completed the second row in the No. 6 Porsche 963, ahead of stablemate Matt Campbell’s No. 5 machine and the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi.

Estre briefly ran as high as second thanks to a late improvement as the checkered flag came out, but last-gap flyers from first Pier Guidi and then Shwartzman dropped the Frenchman back to fourth.

Campbell, meanwhile, experienced an eventful Hyperpole session after he ran through the gravel at Tamburello, but was able to continue.

Trouble also struck for the eighth-placed No. 8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, who spun at Tosa but likewise resumed.

BMW enjoyed its strongest qualifying in Hypercar to date with Rene Rast taking the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 into Hyperpole before claiming seventh overall.

Callum Ilott and Julien Andlauer completed the overall top ten for Hertz Team JOTA and Proton Competition, respectively.

Ilott’s JOTA stablemate Phil Hanson was at the head of the group of drivers not to make the cut for Hyperpole, with Cadillac’s Alex Lynn, the second BMW of Dries Vanthoor as well as Lamborghini, Peugeot, Alpine and Isotta Fraschini also eliminated.

Vanthoor triggered a red flag spinning out of Piratella with just under two minutes remaining and then stopped at pit exit after running resumed, while Lynn clocked his fastest time of the session in the narrow window after the restart but did not advance into Hyperpole.

Malykhin Charges to LMGT3 Pole

LMGT3 championship leader Alex Malykhin took pole position by a significant margin over The Heart of Racing’s Ian James.

The No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R put in a lap of 1:42.365 to take Porsche’s first pole in LMGT3, with James’ No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 0.693 seconds further back.

Ahmad Al Harthy led an all-BMW second row, with the No. 46 Team WRT M4 GT3 ahead of Darren Leung’s No. 31 sister car.

Sarah Bovy rounded out the top five aboard the No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, leading Proton Competition’s Giorgio Roda, the second Porsche of Yasser Shahin and the pair of Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s in the hands of Francois Heriau and Thomas Flohr.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of James Cottingham.

The British driver was the last to make it into Hyperpole, avoiding elimination by beating both TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs.

The No. 777 D’station Aston Martin and both Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3s were amongst some of the other cars to be eliminated from the first session.

The 6 Hours of Imola starts Sunday at 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying