GIOVINAZZI MAINTAINES PERFECT HYPERPOLE RECORD
Antonio Giovinazzi remained undefeated in Hyperpole in the FIA WEC this year. In the Qatar curtain-raiser, the Italian topped the timesheets by 0.136 seconds. At the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, he extended that margin to an impressive 0.758 seconds, as none of his rivals managed to hold a candle to his extraordinary effort.

“It’s always a super-nice feeling to qualify in front of all the tifosi at our home race,” enthused the 31-year-old. “I need to thank the team. The car had been fantastic since FP1. I was really scared about track limits, but I tried to put it all together in qualifying and in Hyperpole. The ideal lap is always difficult to achieve, but I think we did a great job today.”

The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P Hypercar was duly set to start at the front of the field for the second race in succession, with the #83 AF Corse entry alongside, piloted in qualifying by Robert Kubica. That marked a remarkable result for a car that had lost much of the earlier FP3 session due to a mechanical issue.

BMW M Team WRT once again proved best-of-the-rest, with Dries Vanthoor securing third on the grid behind the wheel of the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, a further two-tenths of a second adrift. The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing entries were extremely evenly matched in fourth and fifth – Ryō Hirakawa and Nyck de Vries separated by a scant 0.001 seconds in favour of the former – with Mick Schumacher placing a strong sixth for Alpine Endurance Team.

Jean-Éric Vergne took seventh for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ 9X8, ahead of Charles Milesi in the second Alpine A424 – the Frenchman enduring a couple of gravelly moments during the session.

Alex Lynn – recovering from a crash during final practice – dug deep to claim ninth in the rebuilt #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, with defending champion Kévin Estre rounding out the top ten, as Porsche Penske Motorsport continued to struggle.

Misfortune struck the #50 Ferrari AF Corse entry, as Antonio Fuoco – last year’s pole-sitter at Imola – was stripped of his place in Hyperpole due to a track limits infringement. The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning crew would begin tomorrow’s six-hour race from 18th and last on the Hypercar grid.

LOCAL LEGEND ROSSI DELIVERS SENSATIONAL LMGT3 POLE
Barely half an hour before Giovinazzi’s Hypercar heroics, Valentino Rossi had already sent the thousands of spectators thronging the grandstands into rapture by storming to his and BMW’s first pole position in the fiercely-contested LMGT3 category.

Team-mate Ahmad Al-Harthy laid the foundations with a monster lap of his own behind the wheel of the #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO in the first part of the session, with Rossi then maintaining that momentum in the subsequent Hyperpole shootout.

Despite losing a lap to a track limits infringement, ‘The Doctor’ remained a factor throughout the ten-minute showdown, mastering the 4.909km Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari with a stellar effort that ultimately nobody else could match, raising BMW’s hopes of replicating its Imola victory from 12 months ago.

“The track limits situation is tricky – there are a lot of places where, if you push too hard, it can be a problem, and I’m very good at track limits – I can do them a lot!” Rossi joked. “I also had quite a lot of pressure from Ahmad [Al-Harthy], because he did a fantastic lap in the first part of qualifying. I did another track limit [violation], but fortunately, the car was strong and I had enough grip to try again and managed to improve.

“Pole is a fantastic achievement and I’m very happy, especially after the first race which was a bit more difficult. The team and BMW did a very good job, and to do this here at Imola with all the fans is so special. Tomorrow, we hope to fight for the win.”

The multiple MotoGP world champion ultimately finished just under a third of a second clear of Clemens Schmid in the leading Akkodis ASP Team Lexus, with the Japanese sportscar continuing to show much-improved form in 2025. Zacharie Robichon completed the top three in Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin, while Qatar winner Ben Keating could do no better than 16th in TF Sport’s Corvette.

The 6 Hours of Imola is scheduled to begin at 13:00 CET tomorrow (20 April).