Ferrari Dominates Afternoon Session at Imola Prologue
Imola, Italy—Ferrari showcased its prowess during the afternoon session of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Prologue at Imola, securing the top three positions with its 499P Hypercars. Antonio Fuoco set a blistering pace, clocking a session-best time of 1:31.177, marking it as the fastest overall across the test.
Despite intermittent light rain, the four-and-a-half hours of running remained primarily dry. Fuoco’s performance hints at competitive readiness, aligning closely with historic Friday Free Practice times from previous WEC events. Following him were Robert Kubica and Antonio Giovinazzi in the #83 and #51 Ferraris respectively, finishing just 0.126 seconds and 0.232 seconds behind Fuoco.
BMW secured fourth with Robin Frijns posting a time of 1:31.709, while two Alpine A424 entries filled the next two spots, led by Jules Gounon in the #36. The #94 Peugeot 9X8 took seventh place, followed by a returning #15 BMW, which completed over 100 laps after an engine change earlier in the day. Genesis Magma Racing’s Mathieu Jaminet also surpassed their morning best with a time of 1:33.618, successfully accumulating valuable mileage before their FIA WEC debut on Sunday.
Jaminet commented, “It went pretty well… We faced some issues, but overall, I feel like we’ve done a lot of laps with both cars.”
In terms of lap count, the #7 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid led the session with 142 laps, while the #93 Peugeot trailed with 138. Notably, the #009 Aston Martin did not participate in the afternoon due to chassis repairs following Marco Sorensen’s incident earlier.
In the LMGT3 category, Mattia Drudi’s #27 Aston Martin Vantage set the pace with a lap of 1:42.698. Following him were Alessio Rovera in the #21 Ferrari and Thomas Fleming in the #10 McLaren. Competitive balance was evident as the top 14 were within one second of each other.
Incidents in the LMGT3 field included spins and gravel encounters, triggering red flags and Full Course Yellows, but did not hinder overall mileage completion; the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche led with 124 laps.
The 35-car FIA WEC grid will return to action for Free Practice sessions on Friday, leading up to the six-hour season opener on Sunday.
