Dead-heat in FP2 as Ferrari and BMW prove inseparable at Imola
There was nothing to choose between home favourite Ferrari and BMW in the second free practice session for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Imola – literally, as both manufacturers clocked the exact same lap time to head the leaderboard at the end of the opening day. Here are the headlines from the session...
Ferrari again on top at its home event, but this time it is the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P Hypercar that sets the best time during a fully dry session at Imola
Qatar pole-sitter Antonio Giovinazzi peaks with a 1m31.040s best as the Prancing Horse aims for a second consecutive FIA WEC triumph to open up a gap over its opponents in the early stages of the 2025 title fight
BMW is Ferrari’s closest challenger as the #15 car places second, remarkably posting an identical time of 1m31.040s thanks to Dries Vanthoor. Ferrari, however, takes the top spot since Giovinazzi set his lap earlier in the session
The only other occasion in FIA WEC history that such an occurrence has happened was in qualifying for the 6 Hours of Shanghai in 2014, when Romain Dumas and Neel Jani in the Porsche 919 Hybrid jointly secured pole position with an average of 1m48.300s, which was exactly the same as the second-placed Toyota TS040 driven by Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi
Taking third was the #36 Alpine, as Mick Schumacher achieved Les Bleus’ best lap timewith a 1m31.283s
The fastest car in FP1 – the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen – wound up fourth, with the Italian stopping the clocks at 1m31.394s
Completing the top six in FP2 were the #20 BMW and #38 Cadillac, piloted respectively by Robin Frijns and Sébastien Bourdais
LMGT3
Akkodis ASP Team placed one-two in an ultra-close LMGT3 category, with Clemens Schmid setting the ultimate pace in the #87 Lexus (1m42.944s)
The Austrian wound up 0.119secs ahead of the sister #78 Lexus, in which Finn Gehrsitz posted the best lap
The Lexus RC F LMGT3 maintains its much-improved form this season for the Jérôme Policand-run outfit, which is yet to claim a podium finish in FIA WEC
The top non-Lexus was the #46 Team WRT BMW, with Kelvin van der Linde setting the car’s quickest lap to head the fourth-placed #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3, in the hands of Alessio Rovera
Completing the top six in-class were the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang (Ben Tuck) and #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche (Riccardo Pera)
The third and final free practice session is scheduled to begin at 10:40 CET on Saturday morning.
