Toyota’s Kobayashi keeps his nerve to deny Porsche Penske Imola win

Kamui Kobayashi held his nerve under pressure from Kevin Estre over the final hour to claim victory in the Six Hours of Imola for the number seven Toyota.

In a tense end to an eventful second round of the World Endurance Championship season, Kobayashi kept the number six Porsche Penske at bay to take the first win of the season for Toyota and team mates Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway.

The number six Porsche of Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor pressed Toyota hard in the closing laps. But they needed to pass Kobayashi and pull out a five second margin to overcome a late time penalty for overtaking under Safety Car conditions.

Estre was unable to make a move on the Toyota, dropped back as they encountered a string of lapped cars around the narrow Imola circuit, and had to settle for second. Matt Campbell brought the number five Porsche Penske on the podium in third.

Home favourites Ferrari locked out the first three positions on the grid but failed to get a single car home in the podium places. The number 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen started from pole position and led early but the team lost out when rain arrived with just over two hours remaining.

Ferrari kept their trio of cars on slicks longer than many of their rivals, which saw them drop out of contention for victory. The number 50 499P ultimately finished in fourth, capitalising on a late mistake by Brendon Hartley in the number eight Toyota he shared with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.

The number 20 BMW and the remaining Ferraris filled the next three places, the number 51 factory 499P ahead of the number 83 car. In their first race with their revised 9X8 and its new rear wing, Peugeot managed only ninth with the number 93 car while the number two Cadillac completed the top ten.

The number six Porsche Penske team lead the championship following their second place and their victory in the opening race in Qatar. The third round of the championship – the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – will take place on Saturday 11th May.

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WEC Six Hours of Imola race results

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Laps
1	7	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries	205
2	6	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor	205
3	5	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	205
4	50	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	205
5	8	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	205
6	20	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast	204
7	51	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	204
8	83	Hypercar	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye	204
9	93	Hypercar	Peugeot	Peugeot 9X8	Mikkel Jensen/Nico Mueller/Jean-Eric Vergne	203
10	2	Hypercar	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn	203
11	38	Hypercar	Team Jota	Porsche 963	Jenson Button/Philip Hanson/Oliver Rasmussen	203
12	63	Hypercar	Lamborghini Iron Lynx	Lamborghini SC63	Mirko Bortolotti/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat	203
13	35	Hypercar	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Paul-Loup Chatin/Jules Gounon/Charles Milesi	201
14	12	Hypercar	Team Jota	Porsche 963	William Stevens/Callum Ilott/Norman Nato	200
15	94	Hypercar	Peugeot	Peugeot 9X8	Paul di Resta/Loic Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne	199
16	36	Hypercar	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Nicolas Lapierre/Mick Schumacher/Matthieu Vaxiviere	199
17	11	Hypercar	Isotta Fraschini	Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C	Antonio Serravalle/Carl Wattana Bennett/Jean-Karl Vernay	191
18	31	LMGT3	Team WRT	BMW M4	Darren Leung/Sean Gelael/Augusto Farfus	187
19	46	LMGT3	Team WRT	BMW M4	Ahmad Al Harthy/Valentino Rossi/Maxime Martin	187
20	92	LMGT3	Manthey Purerxcing	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler	186
21	55	LMGT3	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296	Francois Heriau/Simon Mann/Alessio Rovera	186
22	27	LMGT3	Heart Of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas	185
23	95	LMGT3	United Autosports	McLaren 720S Evo	Joshua Caygill/Nicolas Pino/Marino Sato	185
24	81	LMGT3	TF Sport	Corvette Z06.R	Tom Van Rompuy/Rui Andrade/Charlie Eastwood	185
25	82	LMGT3	TF Sport	Corvette Z06.R	Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud/Daniel Juncadella	185
26	77	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker	184
27	777	LMGT3	D’Station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Clement Mateu/Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen	184
28	59	LMGT3	United Autosports	McLaren 720S Evo	James Cottingham/Nicolas Costa/Gregoire Saucy	184
29	54	LMGT3	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon	184
30	60	LMGT3	Iron Lynx	Lamborghini Huracan Evo2	Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Franck Perera	183
31	78	LMGT3	Akkodis Asp Team	Lexus RC F	Arnold Robin/Timur Boguslavskiy/Kelvin Van Der Linde	183
32	87	LMGT3	Akkodis Asp Team	Lexus RC F	Takeshi Kimura/Esteban Masson/Jose Maria Lopez	182
33	91	LMGT3	Manthey Ema	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Yasser Shahin/Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz	171
34	15	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Marco Wittmann	163
35	99	Hypercar	Proton Competition	Porsche 963	Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer	167
36	85	LMGT3	Iron Dames	Lamborghini Huracan Evo2	Sarah Bovy/Doriane Pin/Michelle Gatting	33
37	88	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Giorgio Roda/Mikkel Pedersen/Dennis Olsen	82

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World Endurance Championship

• Ferrari lock out top three grid positions for home round at Imola
• How to watch the Chinese GP, IndyCar at Long Beach and WEC at Imola
• Fifth-placed Cadillac disqualified 26 days after WEC’s season-opening race
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• Peugeot abandons wing-less concept behind 9X8 hypercar

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