No.8 Toyota Leads the 6 Hours of Imola halfway through
- Tarun Suresh
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
James Calado, opening for the No 51 Ferrari AF Corse, maintained the lead from pole and only kept extending the lead. While the No.51 got away cleanly, there was a shuffle for second as Brendon Hartley in the No.8 Toyota lost second place to Miguel Molina in the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari at the first chicane at the start.
The first chicane on the opening lap also had Mike Conway in the other Toyota, the No.7, lose out in sixth place to the No.35 Alpine driven by Ferdinand Habsburg. The Toyotas were not the only ones to lose out at turn two. Phil Hanson in the No.83 AF Corse privateer Ferrari lost out to the No.20 BMW, dropping to ninth.
Once the hypercars caught up to the traffic, Loic Duval in the No.94 Peugeot lost two places, bumping the No.12 Cadillac and No.35 Alpine up to fourth and fifth, respectively. Duval reported degrading tyres early on and soon found himself defending sixth place from the No.7.
The Hypercar debutant, the No.19 Genesis, was brought into the pits just 15 minutes in. They had a power spike and were suffering from temperature issues.
In LMGT3, the No.87 Lexus and the No.32 BMW started struggling earlier on. The No. 87 dropped from third to fifth, and the No.32 dropped from fifth to seventh. The other Lexus was not a stranger to troubles either; the No.78 lost third place to the No.69 BMW at turn seven and soon, another place to the No.88 Mustang just ahead of Acque Minerali. The No.10 McLaren continued leading from pole position.
The second-placed BMW, the No.69, was soon right behind the leading McLaren, but struggled to pass.
The No.7 Toyota was the first to pit, coming in just 50 minutes in after struggling behind the No.94 Peugeot. A minute after that, Daniel Juncadella and the No.19 Genesis car went back on track after seemingly having fixed their issues.
A few minutes later, the pitlane got busy as multiple Hypercars and LMGT3s pit at the same time. Short-fueling in pits had the No.8 jump the No.50 in the pits, having been unable to do so on track. A lap later, the leading Ferrari, the No.51, pulled into the pits.
Just shy of an hour of racing, Razva Umbrarescu in No.78 Lexus reported issues with restarting the car and retired in the pits.
A few seconds into the first hour, a Virtual Safety Car was declared, and the other Lexus, the No.87, stopped on the side of the track after a separate issue from the sister car.
At the end of the first hour, the No.51 Ferrari was leading the Hypercar class, having led every lap up to this point. The No.8 Toyota was in second, and the No.50 Ferrari was third.
In LMGT3, it was the No.88 Mustang leading the race. The No.10 McLaren and the No.69 BMW were second and third, respectively.
Will Stevens, behind the wheel of the No.12 Cadillac, was the only Hypercar from the leading pack that pit, opting for a set of fresh tyres. As per procedure, the Safety Car came out after two laps under VSC.
The safety car period ended 17 minutes into the second hour of the race. While the hypercars lacked any position changes after the restart, LMGT3 had the No.10 McLaren lose second place to the No.69 BMW. The McLaren struggled to keep up with its peers, with the No.33 TF Sport Corvette closing in rapidly.
It took a few more minutes for action to unfold amongst the Hypercars, with the No.12 Cadillac passing the No.51 for third place, the tyre swap paying dividends.
The LMGT3 class saw a lead change soon after, with the rapid No.69 passing the No.88 Proton Mustang for the lead.
The No.7 Toyota struggled with pace and lost two places to Frédéric Makowiecki in the No.35 Alpine and to René Rast in the No.20 BMW. The success of the No.20 did not last long as they were soon handed out a drive-through penalty for a VSC procedure infringement.
The No.7 was the first among the Hypercars to have a change of drivers, with Nyck de Vries getting in the car. Soon, the No. 8, the No.50 and the No.83 peeled in the pits and changed drivers along with refuelling. Ryō Hirakawa, Nicklas Nielsen and Ye Yifei got into each of the cars, respectively.
Two minutes past the two-hour mark, the leading car, the No.51, also swapped drivers during their pit stop, Alessandro Pier Guidi entering the car and exiting the pit lane behind the No.8, who did not change tyres.
In LMGT3, the leader, the No.69 pitted, and Parker Thompson entered the car. Marvin Kirchhöfer in the No.10 McLaren that pitted a lap earlier jumped the BMW once it exited the pits.
The No.93 Peugeot with Nick Cassidy behind the wheel was soon beached in the gravel after Cassidy spun out on the exit of turn three on cold tyres. Cassidy soon managed to get himself out of the gravel, but not before bringing out the VSC for the second time in this race.
The No.7, No.36, No. 94 and the No.007 cars took advantage of this for a quick splash and dash in the pits. A lap later, the two leaders, the No.8 Toyota and the No.51 Ferrari, came in for tyre swaps.
The safety car ended with 3 hours and 27 minutes to go. The lap after racing resumed, the No.12 and No.50 peeled in to serve the drive-through penalties that they got for overspeeding in the yellows. And are currently running fourteenth and fifteenth.
With three hours left on the clock. The leading pair of Hypercars, the No.8 and No.51, are barely separated by a second and an intense battle for third is currently raging on between the No.35 Alpine and the No.7 Toyota.
Further down the field, there is a five-car battle for ninth between the No.009 Aston Martin, No.36 Alpine, No.38 Cadillac, No.20 BMW and the No.17 Genesis.
In LMGT3, the No.10 McLaren leads from the No.69 BMW and the No.33 Corvette.
With the weather for the rest of the race being unclear, and a possibility of rain looming at large, the remaining three hours are going to be just as unpredictable as the first three, if not more.
