Giovinazzi Pips Hirakawa to Give Ferrari Imola Pole

Antonio Giovinazzi delivered Ferrari pole position for this weekend’s opening round of the new FIA World Endurance Championship season by the tiniest of margins, beating Toyota’s Hirakawa by just 0.011 seconds.

At the end of a thrilling Hyperpole session, Giovinazzi set a best lap of 1:30.127 at the wheel of the No. 51 Ferrari 499P he shares with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi to deny Toyota pole in its first outing with the upgraded TR010 Hybrid.

However, Hirakawa split the two works Ferraris as he edged out Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 Ferrari by a similarly slender 0.029 seconds.

Malthe Jakobsen had put the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 second before the final round of improvements, but had to be content with fourth, 0.073 seconds off the pace.

Norman Nato put the best of the Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs, the No. 12 car, fifth ahead of Nyck de Vries in the No. 7 Toyota and Charles Milesi in the No. 35 Alpine A424.

Completing the order in Hyperpole were Robert Kubica aboard the satellite No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari and the two BMW M Hybrid V8s, Robin Frijns ahead of Kevin Magnussen.

Jules Gounon narrowly missed the Hyperpole cut in the second Alpine, securing 11 on the grid ahead of Harry Tincknell’s Aston Martin Valkyrie and Earl Bamber in the second of the JOTA Cadillacs.

The two Genesis Magma Racing entries ended up at the bottom of the times, Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 19 car leading Andre Lotterer in the sister No. 17 entry.

Garage 59 Secures Pole on LMGT3 Debut

In the LMGT3 class, Garage 59 scored pole at the very first time of asking as Thomas Fleming took the top spot in Hyperpole at the wheel of the No. 10 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

After co-driver Antares Au cleared first qualifying with the ninth-fastest time, Fleming recorded a 1:41.181 in the ten-minute pole shootout to give the British team its first WEC pole in its maiden outing after taking over from United Autosports as McLaren’s representative in the class.

Fleming took pole by a margin of 0.226 seconds from another WEC newcomer, Hadrian David in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3.

Clemens Schmid recovered from an off at Rivazza 1 to record the third-fastest time in the sister No. 87 Lexus, ahead of Parker Thompson and Sean Gelael in the two Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs.

Peter Dempsey was fastest in first qualifying aboard the No. 34 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, but the car was tenth and slowest in Hyperpole in the hands of Salih Yoluc, who ended the session by getting beached in the gravel at Rivazza 1 and causing a red flag.

The only brand not to feature in LMGT3 Hyperpole was Aston Martin as the two Heart of Racing-run Vantage GT3 Evos both dropped out in first qualifying, ending up 12th and 15th.

The 6 Hours of Imola begins Sunday at 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Qualifying