Calado Leads Opening Hour at Imola for Ferrari

Ferrari maintained an early lead in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Imola opener as James Calado led Brendon Hartley’s Toyota after the opening hour.

Calado converted pole into the early advantage aboard the No. 51 Ferrari 499P as Molina put the sister No. 50 car ahead of Brendon Hartley’s No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid as the pack hurtled into Tamburello for the first time.

Molina was able to take advantage of running Soft Michelin tires all round to get the move done, with Hartley and Calado both on Mediums.

That was how the order remained up front, with Calado pulling away to the tune of four seconds until the leaders made their pit stops.

Faster pitwork from Toyota as Molina and Hartley pitted in unison on lap 34, a lap before Calado allowed the New Zealander to get ahead.

With an hour down, Calado was 4.334 seconds to the good ahead of Hartley, with Molina 7.801 seconds behind the leader.

Will Stevens ran fourth in the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg’s No. 35 Alpine A424, both drivers having cleared the Peugeot of Loic Duval on-track in the early stages.

A later first stop allowed Phil Hanson to vault his way up to sixth aboard the third-string No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari ahead of Mike Conway, who spent most of the first hour stuck behind Duval in the No. 7 Toyota.

Duval completed the first hour tenth behind the two BMW M Hybrid V8s, Rene Rast leading Kevin Magnussen.

One of the two brand-new Genesis GMR-001s, Dani Juncadella’s No. 19 car, went into the garage early on with what a brand spokesperson described as a “minor issue”, losing 22 laps in the process.

In LMGT3, the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of Stefano Gattuso led the way after a charging first stint.

Gattuso had clawed his way up to third on-track in the first stint as Antares Au retained the lead aboard the No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and Anthony McIntosh rose from fourth to run second aboard the No. 69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Au was first into the pits, with McIntosh and Gattuso among those to pit a lap later, but a slower stop for the BMW allowed Gattuso into the lead with Au slotting into second ahead of McIntosh.

James Cottingham ran fourth in the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo ahead of the two TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, Salih Yoluc running ahead of Blake McDonald.

Having started second and third, the two Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3s suffered disaster within moments of each other as the No. 78 car of Tom van Rompuy went into the garage with a problem before the No. 87 machine of Razvan Umbrarescu stopped on-track, causing a virtual safety car period.