Ferrari lock out top three grid positions for home round at Imola

Ferrari’s trio of hypercars will lead the field away for the start of the WEC’s Six Hours of Imola on Sunday after a dominant Hyperpole performance.

With Ferrari CEO John Elkann watching from the garage, Antonio Fuoco secured pole position for the second round of the World Endurance Championship for the number 50 Ferrari and team mates Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.

The number 83 Ferrari 499P of Robert Shwartzman, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye will start second ahead of last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours winning team of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado in the number 51 Ferrari.

Ten cars advanced through the first phase of qualifying into Hyperpole: All three Ferraris, both Toyotas, four Porsches and a single BMW. Neither Alpine, nor the heavily revised Peugeots sporting new rear wings, successfully progressed into the shootout for pole position.

After the first true push laps in Hyperpole, the number 99 Proton Porsche driven by Julien Andlauer was quickest ahead of the two Toyotas. However, the trio of Ferraris went even faster, with the number 50 Ferrari moving up into provisional pole position with a 1’29.735 courtesy of Fuoco – seven tenths quicker than the number 51 car driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The next lap was compromised by yellow flags when Brendon Hartley spun at Tosa, but he managed to recover without the need for the session to be stopped. The following lap would prove the crucial one as all three Ferraris improved. Fuoco secured pole position with a 1’29.466, while Robert Shwartzman split the two factory Ferraris in second place, half a tenth ahead of the number 51 Ferrari of Pier Guidi.

Kevin Estre put the number six Porsche in fourth ahead of the sister number five car driven by Matt Campbell. Kamui Kobayashi improved at the chequered flag to put his number seven Toyota into sixth ahead of the number 20 BMW with Hartley’s number eight Toyota in eighth place. The top ten was completed by the number 12 Jota Porsche with Callum Ilott, with the number 99 Proton Porsche in tenth.

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Time
1	50	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	1:29.466
2	83	Hypercar	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye	1:29.885
3	51	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	1:29.953
4	6	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor	1:30.101
5	5	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	1:30.385
6	7	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries	1:30.410
7	20	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast	1:30.600
8	8	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	1:30.652
9	12	Hypercar	Team Jota	Porsche 963	William Stevens/Callum Ilott/Norman Nato	1:30.656
10	99	Hypercar	Proton Competition	Porsche 963	Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer	1:30.692

World Endurance Championship

• Lotterer, Estre and Vanthoor clinch WEC drivers’ title, Toyota win constructors’
• Penske Porsche poised to clinch title after winning incident-packed Fuji Six Hours
• Hyundai to launch hypercar racing programme under Genesis brand
• Court of Appeal rejects Ferrari’s challenge to WEC Six Hours of Spa result
• Kubica, Shwartzman and Ye grab first win ahead of charging Toyota at COTA

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