Giovinazzi Fronts Ferrari 1-2 in Imola Qualifying

Antonio Giovinazzi stormed to pole position for the 6 Hours of Imola by leading a Ferrari 1-2, while Valentino Rossi took his and BMW’s first FIA World Endurance Championship pole in LMGT3.

The No. 51 Ferrari 499P led qualifying in convincing style, as Giovinazzi’s best lap of 1:28.920 left him 0.758 seconds clear of the No. 83 Ferrari piloted by Robert Kubica.

The second works-entered Ferrari was notably absent from Hyperpole after Antonio Fuoco was eliminated when he had his times deleted in the opening segment of qualifying.

The result marks Giovinazzi’s second consecutive pole position in the championship, as he also led qualifying during the Qatar season opener in February.

Dries Vanthoor was best of the rest in the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in third place, 0.965 seconds removed from pole.

Toyota Gazoo Racing captured fourth and fifth with the No. 8 GR010 Hybrid of Ryo Hirakawa just 0.001 seconds faster than the sister No. 7 machine in the hands of Nyck de Vries.

Mick Schumacher took sixth in the No. 36 Alpine A424, ahead of the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 driven by Jean-Eric Vergne and the second Alpine in the hands of Charles Milesi.

Alex Lynn qualified ninth after his No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R was rebuilt following a crash in Free Practice 3, with Kevin Estre last in Hyperpole for Porsche Penske Motorsport and tenth overall.

The Hyperpole shootout notably took place without the No. 50 Ferrari, which was demoted to last place in initial qualifying due to track limits infringements.

Initially, Fuoco had qualified third behind Ferrari stablemates Giovinazzi and Kubica before he had his times deleted.

This allowed the No. 93 Peugeot to advance into Hyperpole after it was initially eleventh, with the No. 94 Peugeot of Stoffel Vandoorne the first of the cars to be eliminated after the correction.

Julien Andlauer’s No. 5 Porsche and the No. 20 BMW piloted by Robin Frijns were also bumped, as were the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche, No. 38 Cadillac and both Aston Martin Valkyries.

Rossi Takes Maiden WEC Pole on Home Soil

Rossi secured pole by beating Akkodis ASP Team’s Clemens Schmid in Hyperpole.

The Italian steered the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 to a best lap of 1:42.355, allowing him to remain clear of Schmid’s No. 87 Lexus RC F GT3 by a margin of 0.306 seconds.

Zach Robichon qualified third for Heart of Racing Team, joined on the second row by the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann.

Finn Gehrsitz completed the top five in class aboard the No. 78 Lexus ahead of the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 piloted by Giammarco Levorato.

Riccardo Pera, the only Porsche driver to break through into Hyperpole, took seventh, with the pair of United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos eighth and ninth.

Rui Andrade rounded out the top ten for TF Sport.

While Rossi topped Hyperpole, his Bronze-rated co-driver Ahmad Al Harthy dominated the opening segment of LMGT3 qualifying as the No. 46 BMW remained unbeaten at the top of the session.

The Omani’s best effort of 1:42.731 proved to be 0.767 seconds faster than the next best car in the class, which was the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of Francois Heriau.

Notably cars to not make the cut for Hyperpole included the No. 31 The Bend Team WRT BMW of Yasser Shahin, as well as the championship-leading No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The 6 Hours of Imola starts Sunday at 1 p.m. CEST (7 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Qualifying/Hyperpole