Imola Saturday Notebook

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche

***Six Hours of Imola pole-sitter Antonio Giovinazzi admitted he was “really scared” about track limits in Hyperpole after getting two of his quickest laps docked in qualifying. “It was quite [close] there in quali,” he said. “They took two of my laps, so being there in Hyperpole with the [sting] of warning was not ideal. But I was able to do it again.”

***Giovinazzi was nearly one-second clear of the closest non-Ferrari 499P, the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, who maintained his streak of qualifying inside the top-three for all of the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races this season.

***Team boss Vincent Vosse told Sportscar365: “We’re on pole in LMDh, which is great. He did an incredible lap.”

***BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos added: “I can only say that I heard the radio comment from Dries. He said he gave everything he had. Maybe there was a hundredth here or hundredth there but nothing more to gain. P3 here was the maximum we could do. We’re happy to at least be the second best.”

***Sixty percent of Team WRT’s poles in WEC competition have come in Italy, split between Autodromo Nazionale Monza and Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

***AF Corse completed an engine change on the No. 83 Ferrari as a “precautionary measure” after its failure during Free Practice 3, according to a Ferrari spokesperson. Further analysis to determine the root cause of the issue will be carried out at the Prancing Horse’s home base in Maranello.

***The change was completed in time for Kubica to take part in qualifying, where the Polish driver eventually took second place. Afterwards, he attributed the gap of 0.758 seconds to polesitter Giovinazzi to a lack of setup optimalization as a result of the team’s curtailed running in FP3, revealing that AF Corse reverted to Friday’s setup for qualifying as the engine failure meant it wasn’t able to evaluate the changes it had made overnight.

***Antonio Fuoco, meanwhile, explained that the track limits offence that prevented the No. 50 Ferrari from reaching Hypercar occurred at Variante Alta. “I just need to say sorry to the whole team because the mistake I made today was big,” Fuoco told Sportscar365.

***Despite that, Fuoco questioned the late timing of the deletion of his second lap, as it left Ferrari with no time to respond. “The point that I’m a bit disappointed in, to be honest, is that we received the track limit when our car was already in the pit lane,” he said. “We were on track and we had the time to do another push lap, but we didn’t do because we were through.” 

***The No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R suffered “substantial damage” after Alex Lynn’s crash in the opening minutes of FP3, which occurred at Rivazza 1, with both front and rear suspension on the car’s right side affected, as well as the floor and bodywork. Sportscar365 understands that the car went out with an incorrect ride height. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA mechanics fixed the car in time for qualifying, where Lynn broke through into Hyperpole and qualified ninth.

***JOTA WEC driver Earl Bamber is set to take part in the Le Mans test day in Action Express Racing’s No. 311 Cadillac V-Series.R, subbing for Jack Aitken, who will be focused on DTM duties that weekend. Bamber drives for the team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

***Bamber told Sportscar365: “You might see me in the 311 at some stage at Le Mans. Obviously Jack won’t be there. I’m glad to do the pre-Le Mans sim with the Action guys as well. It’s really fun, for me as a driver, working with those guys and these guys.”

***Kevin Estre revealed to Sportscar365 that he is confident of competing without a knee brace after he was given permission to do so at the start of the weekend, as per a stewards’ bulletin. The Frenchman picked up an injury to his left knee playing soccer several weeks ago.

***Estre said: “The progression has been very fast and very good, which is nice. But I had to take a decision last week to do a special brace and we had to submit it and everything to be able to drive with it. But yesterday actually after driving with it and doing some driver changes I saw that I don’t really need it. My stability in the knee is good enough.”

***Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid doesn’t believe Michelin’s Soft tire will come into play tomorrow unless it’s used during in a transitional period between possible rain showers. “With what I know today, there’s still a 25 percent chance [of rain] tomorrow but it’s going down and down,” he said of the forecast.

***Diuguid said that one of its cars encountered tire graining on Friday although the other factory Porsche 963 was fine while on Softs. He added: “I think you can manage it with setup a little bit but it’s on the limit for sure.”

***Porsche Penske has one test “sprinkled in” after next month’s 6 Hours of Spa, not counting the 2026 Michelin tire test at Paul Ricard, ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team did, however, successfully complete a 32-hour endurance simulation test at Motorland Aragon in March.

***Diuguid said: “We’re not doing a bunch [more] track tests. We’re more focusing on car preparation and things like that. We feel like we’re in a good spot. We did a lot of our endurance testing early on in February and March. We front-loaded that to where we feel comfortable.”

***While Ben Keating’s No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R sported a message on the door on Saturday to mark the birthday of his wife Kathleen, the Texan revealed that a second message, planned for Easter Sunday, was rejected. Keating told Sportscar365 that he had planned to have the words ‘He Has Risen’ displayed on the car, but that he was told he was not allowed to run it as religious or political messaging on cars is forbidden by the championship.

***Vista AF Corse driver Thomas Flohr is set to reach a notable milestone this weekend, as the Imola race will mark his 54th start in the series, with every single one of these races having been contested at the wheel of a Ferrari with No. 54. The 65-year-old started out with the 488 GTE and subsequent Evo has raced the 296 GT3 since last year. He has three class victories to his name, most recently winning last year’s 6 Hours of Fuji.

***The FIA President’s Medal is set to be presented to the winning drivers this weekend, as an expansion of the initiative that was first introduced in Formula 1 in 2022 and has now being award across other FIA world championships. The initiative has been brought to life by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who envisioned a “more personal and lasting way” to celebrate success.

***Ben Sulayem said: “When racing, our drivers give everything they have to secure a spot at the top of the podium, and I wanted to create an emblem that reflects their commitment and skill, a tangible reminder of their victory. Crucially, this medal needs to represent the innovation and progress being made across our championships.”

***The FIA also recently announced its all-new FIA Smart Driving Challenge ambassador lineup, which includes WEC driver Yifei Ye and reigning FIA GT World Cup champion Maro Engel, who will join the FIA in promoting safe and sustainable driving within the dedicated FIA SDC app.

***The WEC is offering fans who purchased the Qatar single-race live streaming video free access to this weekend’s race due to the technical issues from the FIA WEC App during the season opener. Additionally, those who have purchased a season pass will receive a 15 percent discount for the same package for 2026, or a referral code to a friend for the remainder of this year’s package.

***Commentary for Sunday’s race, which starts at 1 p.m. CEST (7 a.m. EST) will be provided by WEC’s regular team of Martin Haven, Anthony Davidson and Graham Goodwin. Bruce Jouanny will serve as pit lane reporter. Radio Le Mans, meanwhile, is also providing coverage of the race with its commentary team consisting of Bruce Jones and Jonny Palmer.

John Dagys contributed to this report