Alpine Ends Ferrari’s Dominance by Topping FP2

Alpine ended Ferrari’s domination of the FIA World Endurance Championship timesheets at Imola as Charles Milesi set the pace in second free practice at the wheel of the No. 35 Alpine A424.

Ferrari’s trio of 499Ps had locked out the top three spots on the leaderboard during Tuesday’s Prologue and also in FP1 earlier on Friday, but a 1:30.898 from Milesi in the opening half hour of FP2 proved to be the quickest time.

Milesi’s effort was just 0.114 seconds faster than Nyck de Vries at the wheel of the No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid, the Dutchman having clocked a 1:31.012.

Ferrari, which had cautioned that it does not feel it is favorite for Imola victory despite its strong start to the event, had to make do with third place as Antonio Fuoco posted a 1:31.036 in the best of the 499Ps, the No. 50 machine.

His time was fractionally faster than Antonio Giovinazzi in the sister factory No. 51 entry, the latter having posted a 1:31.087.

Fifth-fastest was the best of the Peugeot 9X8s, the No. 94 entry of Malthe Jakobsen with a 1:31.225, while the top six was completed by the pick of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, the No. 20 car of Robin Frijns – who was within half a second of the ultimate pace on a 1:31.354.

The third of the Ferraris, the No. 83 satellite AF Corse entry, was seventh-quickest courtesy of a 1:31.380 from FP1 pacesetter Robert Kubica.

Eighth place went to Harry Tincknell in the No. 007 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie on a 1:31.432, while the top ten was completed by the respective second Alpine and Toyota crews.

Just one second separated the 14 fastest cars and outside of the top ten were the pair of Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs, the best of which was 11th, thanks to a 1:31.645 from Earl Bamber in the No. 38 car.

Genesis Magma Racing again brought up the rear of the Hypercar field, with its best lap being 1.4 seconds adrift of Milesi’s pace.

Aston Martin led the way in the LMGT3 ranks with the pair of Heart of Racing-run Vantage GT3 Evos finishing the session in first and third positions.

Debutant Kobe Pauwels clocked the fastest time in the No. 23 machine in the final minutes of the session with a 1:42.081 that was less than a tenth quicker than Hadrien David managed in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3.

Zacharie Robichon in the sister Aston posted a 1:42.211, to fractionally outpace Clemens Schmid in the second of the Lexus entries.

The pair of TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs were next up with the No. 33 Corvette of Jonny Edgar fifth on a 1:42.330 while Peter Dempsey managed a 1:42.527 to put the car that topped FP1 into sixth, despite it spending the opening chunk of the session in the pits.

There were only a couple of brief yellow flags during the 90-minute FP2 with no major disruptions.

Final practice ahead of Sunday’s season-opening six-hour contest is due to get under way on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2