Ferrari win in thrilling Imola WEC race, Porsche win GT3 in nailbiter

Aaron Carroll
Apr 20
6 min read

Written by Aaron Carroll

The No.51 Ferrari driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi have won the 6 Hours of Imola, from the No.20 BMW and No.36 Alpine. The No.92 Manthey Porsche has taken the win in LMGT3

The race got underway at 1pm local time as the No.51 Ferrari driven by James Calado led the field away for six hours of racing around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

It was a relatively clean start from the entire field, with the No.51 and No.46 leading from pole in both classes. At the back of the Hypercar field, the No.50 Ferrari began to work its way up the field, after having their best lap in qualifying deleted for track limits.

Nicklas Nielsen in the No.50 made it up from 18th to 15th on the first lap, and then on lap four managed to get past the No.5 Porsche through the first wave of LMGT3. 10 minutes later Nielsen would get past the second of the Porsches - No.6 - too.

Meanwhile René Rast in the No.20 BMW was also moving up the order, getting past the No.94 Peugeot for 10th. Up at the front the No.15 BMW and the pairing of Toyotas were fighting over third, with the Toyotas swapping positions to let Brendan Hartley in the No.8 have a go at the BMW.

The gap began to come down, but before Hartley could catch Kevin Magnussen, the first FCY (Full-Course Yellow) came out for an incident between the No.85 Iron Dames Porsche and the No.33 Corvette in LMGT3.

The No.85 tried a move down the inside but was too eager and send the yellow Corvette spinning into the gravel. Ben Keating got the car going again but he brought a lot of gravel back onto the road, forcing the FCY. The No.85 would later receive a drive through penalty for the incident.

Soon after we went back to green flag racing, the No.21 Ferrari took the lead from the No.46 BMW. However the No.21 had a five second penalty for an infringement on the race start, so the No.46 retook the lead after the first round of pit stops.

The No.38 Cadillac and No.94 Peugeot went side by side into Acqua Minerale, with the Peugeot forcing the Cadillac off the track, giving space for the No.5 Porsche to pass through, but he was also forced onto the grass by the Peugeot. Loic Duval in the Peugeot later got a penalty for the incident.

The No.38 would be involved in an incident with a Peugeot again soon. This time it was the No.93, who went spinning around at turn seven after being hit by the No.38.

The first safety car of the race would be called when the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin driven by Ian James was tagged by the No.31 BMW and went careening into the barriers at the penultimate corner. Thankfully the driver was okay, however the incident took the No.27 out of the race.

After we went back to green flags again, many of the LMGT3 cars pit, with the No.31 BMW jumping the No.46. But Valentino Rossi at the wheel of the No.46 quickly took back the lead.

The No.7 Toyota got locked into a battle with the No.20 BMW, with Conway in the Toyota trying a move but making contact with the BMW. Part of the wing of the German car came lose, and eventually came off, meaning they had to pit for repairs. The stray debris on the track brought out another short FCY.

After we went to green again, many of the Hypercars came into the pits for their scheduled stops. As they emerged from the pits the No.50 came out in fourth after their charge up the field.

It would be more disaster for Toyota coming out of the pits too, the No.8 getting a drive through for a FCY infringement. They came out in 12th, and were battling with the No.12 Cadillac and both Peugeots for 11th. The Toyota would eventually win out as the Cadillac dropped back down the field.

Just as we crossed the half way mark of the race, all of the Hypercars pit, and emerged with a rather mixed up order. After the No.51 Ferrari had led the entire race, they came out second behind the No.6 Porsche who had quietly made their way up the field.

In third was a battle between the No.7 Toyota and the No.15 BMW, with the No.20 BMW and No.83 Ferrari in fifth and sixth. The No.50 Ferrari offset themselves with another stop soon after, dropping down to 15th and a lap down from the leaders.

The No.51 would eventually get by the No.6 Porsche to take the lead once again, after a mistake from Matt Campbell into the penultimate corner. Meanwhile the No.31 BMW of Timur Boguslavskiy went around after a tap from the No.10, narrowly avoiding multiple other cars when re-joining the track.

With just over two hours left, there were many battles up and down the field alongside the lead battle. Namely in LMGT3 between the No.21 Ferrari and No.46 BMW for the lead in the class. Simon Mann was defending hard against Valentino Rossi.

Rossi would go for a closing gap at the final corner, spinning the No.21 off the track and into the wall. Mann was stuck in the wall at T19, resulting in a VSC. The No.46 would later get a stop-go penalty for the incident.

Many of the Hypercars came into the pits, as the track was declared wet by the race director. No one took wet tyres during these stops however, the No.51 and No.83 Ferrari's took soft tyres instead of mediums, in anticipation for more rain.

We went back to green flag just after the four hour mark, with the No.51 leading the No.6 as it began to spit with rain. The VSC meant that the strategy for the No.50 Ferrari was ruined, as they were 13th on the road after everyone else had stopped. Antonio Fuoco in that Ferrari soon got past the No.93 Peugeot for 12th.

Just as the calls of rain proved to be false, the No.51 and No.83 Ferraris who took softs began to drop in pace as the track temperature increased again. The No.50 Ferrari soon pit again, still offset from the rest of the field.

The No.8 Toyota followed the Ferrari in a lap later, both cars running in 14th and 15th - Toyota ahead of Ferrari. The gap out front was staying steady at around two seconds, while Kobayashi in the No.7 piled the pressure onto Estre in the No.6.

There was a close moment between Estre and the No.54 LMGT3, as the Frenchman locked up and almost hit the Ferrari, but quick reactions from driver Davide Rigon saved both cars a trip to the pit lane for repairs.

The No.51 then pulled out a large gap to the No.6 behind, with the Porsche holding up a large train of hypercars behind. The No.7 kept putting pressure on the Porsche, but found no way by.

Eventually all of the cars pit, and the Porsche dropped down the order. All of the pit stops put the No.50 and No.8 out front, with the Toyota defending hard from the Ferrari. The two cars were offset on their pit strategy.

Meanwhile in LMGT3, the No.92 Manthey Porsche led from the No.46 BMW WRT, as the BMW was coming back through after their earlier penalty.

Back at the front, Sebastian Buemi was still defending from Antonio Fuoco, with both cars soon due a pit stop. They came in and went out again, in the same order as before. In the overall lead, the No.20 BMW led, the No.51 Ferrari in second and the No.36 Alpine rounding out the top three.

Soon the No.8 and No.50 would get back to battling, and after two other excursions off the road, the No.50 got a rear-left puncture after both cars went off the track at turn one. The No.50 had to pit for repairs, ruining their race.

At the front, the No.20 BMW came into the pits from the lead of the race, leaving the No.51 out front, with the No.7 Toyota and No.15 BMW fighting over second and third. The No.7 would soon pit, followed by the No.15

Everyone else would soon follow, with the No.51 retaking the lead after all of the final stops. The No.20 would be second with the No.36 Alpine in third.

In the last few laps in LMGT3, the No.46 was catching the No.92 Porsche for the lead. Kelvin Van Der Linde had a look on the penultimate lap, but nothing for it. It went right down to the wire but the No.92 Porsche just held on to win.

In Hypercar it was the No.51 Ferrari to win, with Alessandro Pier Guidi crossing the line after six hours.

Race Result - Top 10

1st No.51 Ferrari AF Corse

2nd No.20 BMW WRT

3rd No.36 Alpine

4th No.83 AF Corse Ferrari

5th No.8 Toyota

6th No.15 BMW WRT

7th No.7 Toyota

8th No.6 Porsche Penske

9th No.93 Peugeot

10th No.12 Jota Cadillac