Ferrari AF Corse Wins Strategic 6H Imola

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Ferrari AF Corse claimed victory on home soil in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Imola, which came down to a strategic final two hours of the FIA World Endurance Championship round.

Alessandro Pier Guidi took the No. 51 Ferrari 499P to a 8.490-second win over the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde, with Mick Schumacher completing the Hypercar podium in the No. 36 Alpine A424 following a hard-fought contest.

While the No. 51 Ferrari controlled the race from pole in the first half after triple stinting its Michelin tires, several contenders took different strategies that shook up the running order, which included a race-leading effort for the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell in the fourth hour.

Campbell lost the lead to the Ferrari with two hours and 22 minutes to go, just moments before a Virtual Safety Car for an incident involving Valentino Rossi and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann, which was stuck in the gravel, that neutralized the field with the race’s second safety car period and subsequent restart with 1 hour and 58 minutes remaining.

Both the No. 8 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari, however, went on an alternative strategy that put Sebastien Buemi into the lead in the final hour.

It came to blows between the two cars with 38 minutes to go when Antonio Fuoco and Sebastien Buemi made side-to-side contact, resulting in a left-rear puncture for the Ferrari, which dropped it down the order.

Buemi came home fifth overall, behind the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica, which was the last of the cars to make a splash-and-go pit stop with nine minutes to go.

Pier Guidi shared top honors with James Calado and pole-sitter Antonio Giovinazzi, marking the team’s first victory of the season and first overall win for the Italian manufacturer on home soil.

The No. 15 BMW was sixth at the line in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, with the No. 7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi seventh, ahead of the eighth-place finishing No. 6 Penske Porsche of Estre.

Mikkel Jensen and Norman Nato completed the top-ten in the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 and No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R entries, respectively.

The JOTA Cadillac bounced back from an opening hour drive-through penalty for Full Course Yellow procedures that also impacted two other cars, while the Peugeot had a spin triggered by the No. 38 JOTA entry of Earl Bamber in the second hour.

The second JOTA Cadillac finished 16th after receiving a drive-through penalty for the No. 93 Peugeot incident, which came after Bamber was run off the road by the No. 94 Peugeot of Loic Duval.

The No. 5 Penske Porsche finished 11th, ahead of the No. 94 Peugeot and No. 35 Alpine, with Proton Competition’s Porsche 14th.

After the late stop for a new left-rear tire, Fuoco was 15th.

All Hypercar entries were classified at the finish, including both Heart of Racing Team-entered Aston Martin Valkyries, which finished 17th and 18th.

Lietz Holds On for Manthey LMGT3 Victory

LMGT3 class honors went to the No. 92 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick, following a costly penalty for Rossi that likely denied the Italian and Team WRT the win.

Lietz finished just 0.316 seconds ahead of the No. 46 WRT BMW of a hard-charging Kelvin van der Linde, who made up considerable ground after serving a stop-and-go penalty for Rossi’s contact with Mann while battling for the class lead at the time.

The South African pressured Lietz in the closing laps but was unable to overtake the Austrian for what would have been a come-from-behind win.

The No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 completed the podium in third, despite an atypical driver rotation that initially dropped the car out of the class lead.

Gold-rated Esteban Masson completed the race ahead of teammate Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 87 entry that came home fourth.

Davide Rigon brought the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari to the finish in fifth, while the sister No. 21 car, which was involved in the Rossi incident, retired with damage sustained in the crash.

The No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo was the race’s only other retirement after Ian James was hit by the No. 31 WRT BMW of Yasser Shahin in the second hour, resulting in a penalty for Shahin and the race’s first safety car period.

James was unhurt in the high-speed accident.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Imola