6 Hours of Imola – Free Practice 1: AF Corse check out the officials, Corvette out in force
For the first WEC visit to Imola, the Italian teams are celebrating: Free Practice 1 was dominated by Ferrari, whose semi-official N°83 set the fastest overall time. In LMGT3, TF Sport's two Corvettes were the fastest, while Valentino Rossi finished 4th!
A great weather bathed Emilia Romagna on Friday for the WEC’s major test run at Imola. Italy was going to be able to choose its favorites to support: Ferrari, of course, but also Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini. What more could you ask for?
The Italians are here
In any case, the Scuderia made a strong impression right from the start in the Hypercar category: Robert Schwartzman, driving the yellow AF Corse, #83, set the fastest time of the session, showing that the semi-official car will be one to watch for the top positions.
Here’s a good start to the weekend for the Kubica/Ye/Schwartzman trio, who are taming the official 499Ps just like they did in Losail in early March. The second Ferrari is number 50 (Nieslen, Molina, Fuoco), which followed at a reasonable distance. The other official one (No. 51) finished in 5th place.
The very, very good surprise of this first free practice session comes from the Lamborghini No. 63 (Bortolotti/Kvyat/Mortara), which set a very interesting 4th fastest time, just under seven tenths off the benchmark of the day. The SC63, a newcomer this year, has benefited from a good weight reduction via the BoP and seems to find its way around the Imola circuit.
In other teams, Porsche did not have the official Penske references (No. 5 and No. 6): the Proton No. 99 took the lead over the factory cars, with a very promising 6th place. Although it should be noted that free practice sessions are rarely a true test.
Toyota did the work very discreetly, the #7 and #8 concluded the session in 9th and 10th position, more than a second behind the Ferrari. And this despite a BoP that was supposed to allow them to fight more towards the front.
Hard for French cars… except one!
The observers necessarily had their eye on the performance of the new Peugeot 9X8, with its rear wing. And it seems that car number 93 found some pace despite being heavier: the first Peugeot, driven by Nico Muller, took 3rd place, despite encountering a mechanical issue on track.
Car number 94, on the other hand, only finished 13th, despite a significant amount of track time, in the hands of Paul Di Resta.
Alpine continues to work on its progression, probably to the detriment of performance. Number 36 outperformed number 35 in 15th and 16th places, behind an Isotta Fraschini which also had a lot of track time (42 laps compared to 50 for AF Corse Number 83). Jules Gounon, hastily replacing Ferdinand Habsburg, was able to experience the sensations behind the wheel in a more concrete way.
LMGT3: Corvette on top, Rossi lurking!
It is very rare for motorcycle riders to switch to four wheels in a world championship. And yet, Valentino Rossi did it, after honing his skills in GT3 for a long time!
The Italian, welcomed as he should in front of the crowd at Imola, set a very nice 4th time for WRT No. 46, with eight tenths of a second ahead of the leaders, in front of the Ferrari No. 54 from Vista AF Corse.
These are equipped with Corvette No. 82 and 81: the two TF Sport cars secured a one-two finish in this first session.
The tricolor team is represented, in this class, by the Akkodis team and its two Lexuses. The N°87 was the best ranked among them, in 9th place, which slightly overshadowed the great difficulty the team faced in Qatar. But the N°78, on the other hand, remained confined to the 18th and last place, with the lowest running of the LMGT3.
The rankings of the two categories will be sent to you in a few moments.
