Ferrari gets its hands on the Hyperpole of the 6h of Imola, the second seasonal event of the FIA World Endurance Championship whose Qualifying took place on the Santerno track with an at times leaden sky that threatened rain, but without a single shot being fired during the session.
Porsche, on the other hand, is celebrating in the LMGT3 Class, but let's go in order to find out how these timed tests went in front of the public who began to fill the stands at various points on the track.
HYPERCAR: three 499Ps and double record
Antonio Fuoco was literally irrepressible throughout the Qualifying, deservedly finishing ahead of everyone with a time of 1'29″466 at the wheel of the official 499P #50.
The Calabrian preceded the #83 Ferrari of Robert Shwartzman, in the Hyperpole among the private Hypercars, and the #51 of his teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi by almost half a second.
Despite their efforts, the Porsches had to settle for fourth and fifth times with Kévin Estre (#6) and Matt Campbell (#5), the latter also author of a forehand at the 'Tamburello' halfway through the second heat.
Kamui Kobayashi will instead start sixth and better than the Toyotas, also because Brendon Hartley with the GR010 #8 committed a spin at the 'Tosa' in the final minutes and found himself eighth, behind the BMW #20 of René Rast.
Finally, in the fifth row we find the private Porsches driven by Callum Ilott (#12 Jota) and Julien Andlauer (#99).
Q1, initially dominated by the Ferraris and with Fuoco setting a 1'30″169, was interrupted with 1'57″ to go due to a spin committed by Dries Vanthoor with the #15 BMW at 'Piratella', which he sealed his elimination by being 13th.
Despite the time available, there were no improvements at the restart and Phil Hanson was the first to be cut out of the Hyperpole brawl, finding himself 11th with Jota's Porsche #38, beaten by a couple of tenths by Estre.
Alex Lynn is also out with the Cadillac, 12th, as are the two Peugeot 9X8s #94 and #93 in the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne behind Vanthoor, and the Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, who will start in 16th place.
The list is completed by the Alpines #36 and #35 of Nicolas Lapierre and Paul-Loup Chatin with heavy gaps, and the Isotta Fraschini of Jean-Karl Vernay in difficulty having 10.6 seconds from the top.
#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler
Photo by: Paul Foster
LMGT3: first Pole for Porsche
After the victory achieved in Qatar, the excellent moment for Porsche continues also in Imola thanks to the Pole Position achieved in 1'42″365 by Alex Malykhin with the 911 #92 of Pure Rxcing.
The Russian gave very heavy gaps to all his rivals in the Hyperpole session for the best 10 of the first heat, with Ian James placing the Heart Of Racing Aston Martin #27 in second place with +0″693.
Second row occupied entirely by the WRT BMWs driven by Ahmad Al Harthy (#46) and Darren Leung (#31), capable of putting the fearsome Sarah Bovy behind her armed with the Lamborghini #85 of the Iron Dames.
Giorgio Roda (#88 Proton Competition) took sixth place and was the best of the Ford Mustangs, beating the Porsche #91 of Yasser Shahin (Manthey EMA) and the AF Corse Ferrari 296s driven by François Heriau (who returned to Imola after flying to France to witness the birth of his second son Charles) and Thomas Flohr.
The #59 McLaren of James Cottingham (United Autosports) completes the top five row list.
In Q1, where the best time was set by Malykhin in 1'42″734, the first of the eliminated was Tom Van Rompuy with the #81 Corvette of TF Sport, out by a couple of tenths. Disappointment in the English team, given that the second Z06 also fell behind, with Hiroshi Koizumi starting 13th in the #82, behind the Aston Martin #777 of D'Station Racing driven by Clément Mateu.
14th place for Ryan Hardwick with the #77 Mustang of Proton Competition, followed by the McLaren of Josh Caygill (#95 United Autosports) and the Lexus #78 and #87 that the Akkodis-ASP Team entrusted to Arnold Robin and Takeshi Kimura .
Bringing up the rear is Claudio Schiavoni in the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx, 3″5 from the top.
The 6h of Imola will start on Sunday at 1pm.
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