Toyota Beats Porsche in Thrilling Finish at Imola

Toyota Gazoo Racing snatched an unlikely victory in the 6 Hours of Imola as Kamui Kobayashi held off a charging Kevin Estre at the end of a thrilling, rain-affected second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Kobayashi and his teammates in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, made full use of a rain shower that split strategies up and down the Hypercar field and allowed Toyota and Porsche a chance to beat Ferrari on its home turf.

Ferrari held a dominant position at the halfway mark with its two factory 499Ps running one and two, but the Italian manufacturer dropped the ball by leaving all three of its cars out on slick tires on a track that was steadily becoming wetter.

By contrast, Toyota brought both of its GR010 Hybrids for wets relatively early, with Porsche Penske Motorsport splitting its strategies by bringing in the No. 6 car on the same lap and the sister No. 5 out for a further two laps before making the switch to wets.

By the time all the front runners were back on slicks, Kobayashi had a lead of around 10 seconds over Estre, but stopping two laps earlier than the Porsche meant that he was forced to save fuel during his closing stint, allowing Estre to close right in.

However, the No. 6 Porsche had been handed a five-second time penalty for overtaking under the safety car, meaning Estre would have had to pass and extend a five-second lead to grab the victory.

A small off-track moment at the Villeneuve chicane in the closing laps appeared to blunt Estre’s charge, and in the end the Frenchman and his teammates Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor were classified seven seconds down at the finish, including the penalty.

Matt Campbell brought the No. 5 car home he shares with Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen in third place, 25 seconds behind the winning Toyota.

Ferrari’s top finisher was the No. 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Niklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina in fourth after a late pass by Fuoco on the No. 8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley.

The No. 8 Toyota that Hartley shared with Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi had been on an almost identical strategy to the winning sister car, but Hartley lost time with two off-track moments on cold slick tires late on.

BMW had looked like a podium challenger during the worst of the rain, as the No. 20 car of Sheldon van der Linde ran fourth, but an off-track moment and a later drive-through penalty left he and teammates Rene Rast and Robin Frijns a lapped sixth.

The two remaining Ferraris came home seventh and eighth, with the No. 51 car of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi coming home ahead of the third-string No. 83 AF Corse entry of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye.

Peugeot salvaged two points for ninth on a difficult debut race for its revised 9X8, while Cadillac Racing’s solo V-Series.R claimed the final point in 10th.

Team WRT BMWs Take 1-2 in LMGT3

In the LMGT3 class, Team WRT put on a strategic masterclass in the changing conditions to deliver a one-two finish with its pair of BMW M4 GT3s.

The pole-winning No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R looked to be in a strong position to repeat its dominant Qatar victory early in the race, but the team erred by bringing in Klaus Bachler for wet tires in the worst of the rain.

While the track was wet enough to force the entire Hypercar field on to wet tires, there was more a split among the LMGT3 field, with the two TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs and the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 among the other teams to make the switch.

On the other hand, WRT kept both its cars out on slicks for the duration, which turned the battle for class honors into a two-way fight between the respective pro drivers in each of its cars, Augusto Farfus in the No. 31 car and Maxime Martin in the No. 46 car.

Ultimately, a drive-through penalty for the No. 46 car for not respecting the virtual safety car procedures opened the way for Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung to take a straightforward victory by 22 seconds over Martin, Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy.

The No. 92 Manthey Porsche of Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm was third, having later switched back to slicks, a lap down on the BMWs.

Completing the top five were the No. 55 Ferrari of Alessio Rovera, Francois Heriau and Simon Mann and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Imola