24h Le Mans
Twelve months ago at Imola, Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi grabbed pole position by more than three-quarters-of-a-second. The reigning world champion secured the top spot on the starting grid again today, but he had to dig deep during the closest Hyperpole shootout in Hypercar history.
As it bids to get its title defence off to a winning start on home soil, Ferrari topped four of the five testing and practice sessions around the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but when it came to qualifying for tomorrow’s FIA World Endurance Championship curtain-raising contest, the Prancing Horse’s rivals applied some serious pressure.
Ferrari’s all-conquering 499P was still firmly in the mix – courtesy of Giovinazzi and countryman Antonio Fuoco – but so too were Toyota and Peugeot. Rising star Malthe Jakobsen produced a stellar effort in Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ #94 9X8, but as the clock ticked down towards zero, Ryō Hirakawa stormed to the summit of the standings in TOYOTA RACING’S heavily-updated TR010 Hybrid.
That looked to be that, but Giovinazzi had other ideas. On the very last lap of the session, the Italian thrilled the thousands of tifosi packing the circuit grandstands to snatch pole position by the tiniest of margins, with the leading quartet blanketed by a miniscule 0.073 seconds...
In LMGT3, Garage 59 made a grand entrance into the championship as rising star – and FIA WEC rookie – Tom Fleming produced a sensational performance. For much of the session, the young Brit looked untouchable, and while the opposition – led by Lexus – narrowed the gap later on, ultimately, nobody could hold a candle to the McLaren racer.
The 6 Hours of Imola will get underway at 13:00 CEST tomorrow (Sunday, 19 April).
Qualifying results HERE.
Follow all of the action live on FIAWEC+
