AT IMOLA IN THE WORLD WEC, TOYOTA WIN. PORSCHE 963 ON THE PODIUM!

The success of one of the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs, No. 7 which wins with victory in the 6 Hours of Imola, the second round of the 2024 WEC World Endurance Championship Beaten by Porsche during the opening round in Losail in Qatar, the Hypercar that dominates the Team The World Champions returned to victory at the end of a hard-fought race!

This first edition of the 6 Hours of Imola WEC gave us a spectacle full of twists and turns and suspense until the end!

And under the dashboard, is the crew made up of Briton Mike Conway, Dutchman Nyck de Vries and Japanese Kamui Kobayashi who wins on the track of Enzo and Dino Ferrari at the Imola autodrome in the heart of Emilia-Romagna.

The start of these 6 Hours of Imola was very eventful because at the back of the Hypercar peloton, a collision often on the way to Tamburello, involved one of the Alpines, Matthieu Vaxiviere’s number 36, ‘Isotta Fraschini N°. 11 of Jean-Karl Vernay, one of the Peugeot N°94s of Paul Di Resta and one of the BMWs, the N°15 of Marco Wittmann. Which required the intervention of a safety car.

In the lead, Antonio Giovinazzi passed Robert Kubica’s private car number 83 Ferrari 499P, while two official AF Corse Ferraris, No. 50 and 51, leading. Next, Laurens Vanthoor with one of the Penske Porsche 963s, No. 6 and Mike Conway at the wheel of the No. 7 Toyota.

At the end of the first hour of the race, the top five were separated by more than six seconds!

But the first salvo of the hole stops to upset the established order.

Ferrari 51 took the lead ahead of No. 6 Porsche and No. 7 Toyota. Starting from pole position, another 499P, No. 50 was sixth.

Ferrari AF Corse, which opted for three positions with Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicklas Nielsen, saw the No. 7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Nyck de Vries, third, move up to 499P.

It was that during the fourth hour of the race, rain appeared at Imola, catching Carl Bennett’s Isotta Fraschini in the Alta variant. De Vries at the wheel of Toyota No. 7 took advantage of second place from Miguel Molina 499P, then led the race during the pit stops.

The peloton then regrouped under the safety car, with the race director declaring the track wet.

On the restart, Miguel Molina overtook the No. 7 Toyota, but got his due a few laps later after three Ferrari 499Ps returned to the pits to put on Wet tyres.

Kevin Estre at the wheel of No. 6 Porsche with Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota followed the leading Ferrari. The deficit settled at the top of the race, following numerous ‘Full Course Yellow’ changes, caused by several off-track incidents in the Hypercar category, and the end of a wet period.

The drying up of the track forced Toyota to relinquish the race lead for a while, in order to put Slick tires on its two GR010s.

His competitors imitated him during the last hour of the race, thus returning the lead to No. 7. Placed at the wheel, Kamui Kobayashi then drove economically, but under constant pressure from Kevin Estre in the Porsche.

But the very experienced Japanese was able to maintain his leadership in front of the Frenchman and Porsche N ° 6 in his exhaustion, crossing the finish line and. 7”081 ahead. Australian Matt Campbell in the seat of another official Porsche 963, Number 5, completed the podium.

Top 5 for the first Ferrari 499P, number 50 and another Toyota, number 8. Sixth, number 1^time Team WRT’s BMW achieved its best result in the WEC with the M V8 Hybrid, South African Sheldon Van der Linde ahead of two other Ferraris, Nos. 51 and 83.

The best of two Peugeot 9X8s, No. 93 and No. 2 Cadillacs round out the Top 10.

From this race, we will remember some passion among the fans after the hat-trick of qualifying for three 499Ps!

BMW WRT WIN IN GT3

The Belgian WRT team wins in the LMGT3 category after a controlled race. The Belgian team knew how to adopt a winning strategy to turn the situation to its advantage.

Pole-setter Aliaksandr Malykhin retained his first-place advantage with the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche and led the LMGT3 peloton.

This start of the race, like Hypercars, was marked by an incident at the start, involving another Manthey Porsche, number 91 and Lamborghini number 85 of the Iron Dames, forcing the women to retire in second. at.

The winners of the first race of 2024 in Qatar maintained a comfortable lead over the No. 46 BMW of Team WRT – that of the public’s favorite, the superstar who is the former world champion of multiple motorcycles Valentino Rossi – despite the best efforts of the story Val.

The second M4, No. 31 assigned to Sean Gelael, completed the provisional podium at the halfway mark.

The rain started to fall and analyzed the cards again while No. 92 Porsche returning to its stand, leaving the race stewards to the two BMW guys, who had made a… ‘bet to win, putting on their Slick tires.

In stoppage time, Brazilian Augusto Farfus surprised Belgian Maxime Martin to regain the lead.

And it was he, the Brazilian who crossed the finish line first in the LMGT3 category. The two BMW WRT cars made it a comfortable double for themselves with the No. 31 ahead of the No. 46.

Porsche Manthey PureRxcing to settle for 3rd^th third place on the podium.

AF Corse N°55 Ferrari Vista and Aston Martin Racing Heart N°27 rounding out the Top 5.

The third round of the 2024 WEC World Endurance Championship will take place in Belgium, during the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, on May 11.

Final adjustments before the big annual meeting, the very prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16 and 17, 2024!

Gilles GAIGNAULT

Photo : WEC – TEAMS – Nick DUNGAN / Drew GIBSON

WEC WORLD CLASSIFICATION FOR THE SIX HOURS OF IMOLA

1 – Conway-Kobayashi-de Vries (Toyota GR010) Toyota, 205 laps

2 – Estre-Lotterer-L.Vanthoor (Porsche 963) Penske in 7″051

3 – Campbell-Christensen-Makowiecki (Porsche 963) Penske à 25″626

4 – Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen (Ferrari 499P) Ferrari in 31″469

5 – Buemi-Hartley-Hirakawa (Toyota GR010) Toyota à 33″ 777

6 – Frijns-Rast-S. Van Der Linde (BMW M Hybrid V8) WRT 1 tour

7 – Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi (Ferrari 499P) Ferrari for 1 lap

8 – Kubica-Shwartzman-Ye (Ferrari 499P) AF Corse in lap 1

9 – Jensen-Müller-Vergne (Peugeot 9X8) Peugeot 2 laps

10 – Bamber-Lynn (Cadillac V-LMDh) Cadillac à tour 2

11 – Button-Hanson-Rasmussen (Porsche 963) Jota in 2 laps

12 – Bortolotti-Mortara-Kvyat (Lamborghini SC63) 2 lap Lamborghini

13 – Chatin-Gounon-Milesi (Alpine A424) Alpine with 4 towers

15 – Di Resta-Duval-Vandoorne (Peugeot 9X8) Peugeot for 5 laps

16 – Lapierre-Schumacher-Vaxiviere (Alpine A424) Alpine with 6 towers

17 – Serravalle-Bennett-Vernay (Isotta Fraschini Type 6) 14 laps Isotta

18 – Leung-Gelael-Farfus (BMW M4) WRT for 19 laps (1^{it is} GT3)

19 – Al Harthy-Rossi-Martin (BMW M4) WRT in 19 laps

20 – Malykhin-Sturm-Bachler (Porsche 911 GT3 R) Manthey à 20 tours

21 – Heriau-Mann-Rovera (Ferrari 296) AF Corse in 20 laps

22 – James-Mancinelli-Riberas (Aston Martin Vantage) Heart in 20 laps

23 – Caygill-Pino-Sato (McLaren 720S) United for 20 visits

24 – Van Rompuy-Andrade-Eastwood (Corvette Z06) TF Sport in 20 laps

25 – Koizumi-Baud-Juncadella (Corvette Z06) TF Sport 20 laps

26 – Hardwick-Robichon-Barker (Ford Mustang) Proton in 21 laps

27 – Mateu-Bastard-Sorensen (Aston Martin Vantage) D’Station for 21 laps

28 – Cottingham-Costa-Saucy (McLaren 720S) United in 21 visits

29 – Flohr-Castellacci-Rigon (Ferrari 296) AF Corse in 21 laps

30 – Schiavoni- Cressoni-Perera (Lamborghini Huracan) Iron Lynx in 22 laps

31 – Robin-Boguslavskiy-K. Van Der Linde (Lexus RC F) Akkodis ASP à 22 laps

32 – Kimura-Masson-Lopez (Lexus RC F) Akkodis ASP for 23 laps

33 – Shahin-Schuring-Lietz (Porsche 911 GT3 R) Manthey à 34 tours

34 – Marciello-Wittmann-D. Vanthoor (BMW M Hybrid V8) 42 laps WRT

BEST TOURS: Antonio Fuoco, en 1’42″257

TO STOP

Tincknell-Jani-Andlauer (Porsche 963) Proton

Bovy-Pin-Gatting (Lamborghini Huracan) Iron Dames

Roda-Pedersen – Olsen (Ford Mustang) Proton