Ferrari Sets Prologue Pace With 1-2-3 at Imola

Ferrari ended the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Prologue at Imola at the top of the timesheets with the trio of 499Ps locking out the top-three spots.

Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 machine lowered the benchmark that Antonio Giovinazzi set in the morning session by around four tenths of a second to head the leaderboard with a 1:31.177, a lap that was just over two seconds slower than last year’s pole time.

Like the morning, the four-and-a-half hour afternoon session featured intermittent rain and chilly conditions at Imola as the WEC teams gathered on track together for the first time this year, following the postponement of the planned Qatar season-opener amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Fuoco finished up just over a tenth quicker than the No. 83 AF Corse 499P, with Robert Kubica managing a 1:31.303 aboard the yellow machine.

The third of the Ferraris was slightly slower as Giovinazzi clocked a 1:31.375 in the No. 51 factory entry very early into the afternoon running.

BMW Team WRT narrowed the gap to Ferrari during the afternoon and occupied fourth spot thanks to a 1:31.709 from Robin Frijns in the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 to be only half a second adrift of Fuoco’s ultimate pace.

It was also a more productive session for the sister No. 15 machine after it only managed 25 laps in the morning having undergone an engine change. It finished up eighth quickest in the afternoon, thanks to a 1:32.204 posted by Kevin Magnussen.

Sandwiched between the two BMWs were the pair of Alpine A424s, the No. 36 car of Jules Gounon setting a 1:31.872 to go just 0.004 seconds faster than Charles Milesi aboard the No. 35 entry.

Seventh fastest was the best of the Peugeot 9X8s, the No. 94 of Loic Duval, which managed a 1:32.106, while the No. 93 was tenth on the leaderboard.

It was another low-key outing for the new Toyota TR010 Hybrid, with the best of the Japanese cars ending up ninth thanks to a 1:32.409 from Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 car.

The sole Aston Martin Valkyrie taking part in the session – after the No. 009 required a chassis change following a sizeable crash for Marco Sorensen in the morning – wound up 12th on a 1:32.593 from Harry Tincknell.

Both of the Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs were outside of the top ten, with the best of these 13th on the leaderboard as Earl Bamber registered a 1:32.613 in the No. 38 car.

Genesis Magma Racing brought up the foot of the Hypercar timesheet as it prepares for its WEC race debut this weekend, but each of the GMR-001s notched up over 90 laps in the afternoon with a best time of 1:33.618 from Mathieu Jaminet that was 2.4 seconds adrift of the lead Ferrari.

Drudi Paces LMGT3 in No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin

While Aston suffered disappointment in the top class, it led the way in the LMGT3 division thanks to a 1:42.698 from Mattia Drudi aboard the No. 27 Heart of Racing Vantage GT3 Evo that was around two tenths faster than Alessio Rovera’s morning pace-setting time.

Rovera had to settle for second quickest in the afternoon at the wheel of the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo with a 1:42.749 that was half a tenth slower than Drudi.

The times were again incredibly close with a second separating the top-14 on the LMGT3 leaderboard and just two tenths between the top-five.

Third quickest was the the No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Tom Fleming on a 1:42.814, which was fractionally faster than Charlie Eastwood managed in the No. 34 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The second Corvette, the No. 33 of Jonny Edgar, was just 0.050 seconds slower than the sister car on a 1:42.876 in fifth.

There were two brief interruptions during the longer afternoon session, the first of which was caused by Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 87 Lexus RC F GT3, which encountered trouble at Acqua Minerali.

Attention now turns to first practice ahead of the season-opening six-hour race at Imola. FP1 is due to get under way at 10:15 a.m. local time on Friday (4:15 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Test Session 2