Ferrari Holds 1-2 at Halfway Mark at Imola

James Calado led the 6 Hours of Imola at halfway as part a 1-2 for Ferrari, with the two factory 499Ps engaged in battle at the three-hour mark.

Calado, having just taken over the No. 51 Ferrari from Antonio Giovinazzi, faced pressure from Molina’s No. 50 car as the two diced for the lead into Tamburello.

Molina was able to exert pressure on his stablemate after Calado struggled for pace on his out lap, having taken two fresh tires on the right hand side.

A moment with one of the United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos then cost Calado momentum out of Tosa, allowing Molina to close in before Calado ultimately rebuffed his attack.

The No. 50 car had been on a recovery after a slow opening stop for Nicklas Nielsen that dropped the car outside the top five.

However, a shorter second stop brought it back into contention and promoted the car to second place as the order in the top five was shaken up when the top cars came in to pit.

The No. 6 Porsche 963 lost the most ground with Laurens Vanthoor pitting from second place to hand over to Andre Lotterer, with the German then rejoining in fourth as he was leapfrogged by the No. 50 Ferrari as well as the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Toyota driver Nyck de Vries sat third at the halfway mark ahead of Lotterer, the No. 5 Porsche of Michael Christensen and the No. 8 Toyota in the hands of Ryo Hirakawa.

Callum Ilott held seventh at the three-hour mark but came on to pit and had lost time earlier when he went off-track at Tosa before rejoining.

Prior to that, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche ran on a strategy that saw it consistently stretch its energy allocation longer than its class rivals, but a potential strategic advantage was wiped out when Ilott lost more than 30 seconds with his moment at Tosa.

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari ran ninth with Robert Shwartzman at the wheel, having fallen away from its early top three position when Robert Kubica was given a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement.

The No. 38 JOTA Porsche of Oliver Rasmussen completed the top ten ahead of Lamborghini driver Edoardo Mortara and the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 driven by Mikkel Jensen.

In LMGT3, the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R maintained its advantage, with Joel Sturm holding a lead of 14.382 seconds over the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 in the hands of Valentino Rossi.

Simon Mann sat in third aboard the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, ahead of the second Team WRT BMW of Sean Gelael and the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 that had Kelvin van der Linde at the wheel.