Hypercar – Leader: #51 Ferrari AF Corse (James Calado)
- The pole-sitting #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P Hypercar started by James Calado controlled the opening two hours of the 6 Hours of Imola to delight a large contingent of tifosi
- Calado manages a gap to the #83 AF Corse run 499P piloted by fellow British driver Phil Hanson throughout the first phase of the second round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship
- The two Ferraris are close together, but 15 seconds ahead of the third-placed car, the #15 BMW driven by Kevin Magnussen
- But the shape of the race changed after 1h35m when an incident between the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and #31 Team WRT BMW brought out the safety car and bunched up the field
- The two Toyotas swapped fourth and fifth positions in the opening hour as Mike Conway handed Brendon Hartley the place so the #8 Toyota could try to maximise its different tyre strategy, with softs on the left-hand-side of both Japanese Hypercar
- Nicklas Nielsen enjoyed a very fruitful first double stint as he moved from P18 on the grid in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P to sixth by the arrival of the third hour. Nielsen capitalised on the implementation of the safety car to latch onto the tail of the two Toyotas
- The Dane picked off both Aston Martins, the #99 Proton Porsche, the #38 Cadillac, the #94 Peugeot, both Porsche Penske cars and the #20 BMW in the first 75 minutes courtesy of a breathtaking charge
- But Nielsen pitted just before the third hour to hand over to Miguel Molina, dropping the car down the field as a second Full Course Yellow was deployed for debris on the track at the start/finish line
- That debris came from René Rast’s BMW after he and Mike Conway touched at the Gresini Chicane
- Completing the top ten amid close and entertaining fights throughout the Hypercar category were the #20 BMW of Rast, the #6 Porsche Penske of Laurens Vanthoor, the #94 Peugeot of Paul Di Resta and the #38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber
- But that order was broken up when Bamber tagged the back of Di Resta’s Peugeot at Tosa, causing the Scot to spin and costing him several positions. Bamber was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident
LMGT3 – Leader: #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus (Clemens Schmid)
- Ahmad Al-Harthy starred in the opening exchanges of a fiercely-fought LMGT3 class, which saw an earlier-than-planned second pit-stop phase prompted by the second-hour safety car
- The Team WRT BMW M4 enjoyed a faultless two first hours with the Omani at the wheel. Despite briefly losing the lead to the chasing #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of François Heriau, Al-Harthy reclaimed the initiative after the first stops when Heriau was given a five-second penalty for a starting infringement
- Valentino Rossi climbed aboard the leading BMW just before the third hour arrived for his double stint, but relinquished the lead to the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus driven by Clemens Schmid, dropping back to third position
- Pushing up into second place was the #31 The Bend Team WRT BMW driven by Timur Boguslavskiy, although this car is under investigation for the safety car-triggering shunt involving the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin
- The recovering #21 Ferrari, now in the hands of Simon Mann, placed fourth ahead of the Arnold Robin-piloted #78 Lexus. The #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang driven by Ben Tuck rounds out the top six cars
- The #85 Iron Dames Porsche of Célia Martin was handed a drive-through penalty in the first hour after contact with Ben Keating in the #33 TF Sport Corvette. Keating spun into the gravel trap at Tamburello as a consequence of the contact, which in-turn triggered the only Full Course Yellow in the first hour to sweep gravel from the track
- The Heart of Racing Aston Martin retired after heavy contact with the wall, having been pitched into a spin by Yasser Shahin in the #31 Team WRT BMW
- Several LMGT3 cars were handed five-second penalties in the early stages, with the #21 Ferrari, #31 BMW, #77 and #88 Ford Mustangs, #81 TF Sport Corvette and the #95 United Autosports McLaren all having longer first stops as a result of the added time
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