Ferrari’s trio of 499Ps put in a dominant performance during qualifying for the 6 Hours of Imola, finishing 1-2-3 in Hypercar Hyperpole.
The Italian brand’s charge was led by Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 499P, who snatched pole position by four-tenths with a rapid 1m29.466s to lap the circuit more than a second quicker than anyone in practice.
“It was amazing. To be P1-2-3 in front of the Tifosi. We now have to do our best tomorrow,” said Fuoco.
Behind, the No. 83 privately-funded Ferrari ended up second after a standout drive from Robert Swartzman, who also dipped into the 1m 29s with a time fractionally quicker than Alessandro Pier Guidi in the sister No. 51 factory car that ended up third.
The trio of Ferrari 499Ps were the only cars to set sub 1m30 laps. Best of the rest were the two factory Porsche 963s, which ended up fourth and fifth, the No. 6 and No. 5 sixth and nine-tenths shy of pole respectively.
Toyota pushed hard with its GR010 HYBRIDs, but Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 could only manage sixth, while Brendon Hartley ended up losing a fast lap to a spin at Turn 7 and ended up eighth.
The qualifying session for the Hypercars prior to Hyperpole eliminated a number of significant cars. On the wrong side of the cut-off line were the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and Cadillac V-Series.R which will start 11th and 12th.
Both new Peugeot 9X8s and the two Alpines also failed to make it into the fight for pole position, as did the Lamborghini SC63 and Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6-C ahead of their home race.
“We are happy to be here with the new car but we can see the pace in Imola is very fast. We would have loved to have been in Hyperpole but we are focused on the race,” said Jean-Marc Finot, vp of Stellantis Motorsport.
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The qualifying session was interrupted by a spinning Dries Vanthoor in the No. 15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. His error caused a red flag with just under two minutes remaining, setting up a dash to set a final flying lap.
Vanthoor and his teammates Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann will start 13th, as he was not allowed to rejoin the session and attempt to improve his time.
Prior to the Hypercar sessions, the Qatar-winning Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche took LMGT3 pole after a dominant performance from Alex Malykhin in Hyperpole. The Belarusian set a 1m42.365s to go almost seven-tenths quicker than the other Bronze drivers that made it into the top-10 shootout.
“It’s a really good day for us,” said Malykhin, whose performance was particularly impressive considering the Pure Rxcing Porsche is carrying success ballast for winning in Qatar. “All my laps were clean and the team did a great job setting up the car.”
Ian James came closest in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. He set a 1m43.058s to take the second spot on the front row, coincidentally in the car that finished second behind the No. 92 Porsche in Round 1.
The two WRT BMW M4 GT3s were next, with Ahmad Al Harthy putting the No. 46 crew third with a 1m43.099s. He will start alongside Darren Leung who set a near-identical time in the No. 31 sister car.
The third row on the grid in LMGT3 will be occupied by the Iron Dames Lamborghini and No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang after efforts from Sarah Bovy and Giorgio Roda respectively.
Prior to Hyperpole for the 18 LMGT3 cars, the big headline was the lack of pace from TF Sport’s Corvettes in the first session, which were quick throughout practice but failed to get into the top 10. The No. 81 Z06 LMGT3.R of Qatar pole winner Tom Van Rompuy ended up 11th, missing the cut by under two tenths, while the No. 82 ended up 13th.
“This weekend we don’t have the package to go for pole, but let’s hope we have good race pace,” admitted a disappointed Van Rompuy. “It’s the opposite to last time where we had good qualifying pace but struggled with race pace and technical issues.”
Other notable drivers that failed to make it to the shootout were Proton Competition’s Ryan Hardwick, D’Station Racing’s Clement Mateu and both bronze drivers in the AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F GT3s.