6 Hours of Imola – H+1: Ferrari already relegates the competition
After an hour's racing, the two leading Ferraris had distanced themselves from the rest of the field. Further back, the #50, which started last, had already made up almost half the field.
They did not defy the odds. From the first lap of the race, the leading two Ferraris had a two-second lead. A gap with the competition that continued to grow with each lap. Behind them, BMW held its position and kept the two Toyotas in its exhaust trail.
In the last part, the Ferrari #50 carved its way through the first corners to overtake the Aston Martins. The 499P was in 11th position after 45 minutes of the race. Before the start, Kevin Magnussen admitted he was more wary of the Ferrari #50 than the other hypercars. He was right.
A penalty for the Iron Dames
The Iron Dames’ Porsche was involved in a collision with the #31 Corvette from TF Sport. Célia Martin spun Ben Keating around at Tamburello. She was blamed for this incident. The French driver received a drive-through penalty.
Corvette #33 spun out into the gravel! 🫣
Watch LIVE on https://t.co/IPZa0nvsLu 🎥#WEC #6HImola pic.twitter.com/OiigctSt4f
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) April 20, 2025
Three other cars were penalized at once: the Cadillac #12, the Alpine #35, and the Ford #88. These two hypercars and the GT3 were penalized for not complying with the rules under neutralization.
Read also: 6 Hours of Imola: what are the stakes of the race?
At the level of French forces, Peugeot and Alpine held their ground. The arrow-branded cars seemed faster than the Lionesses. But the pace difference was too small and the difficulty of overtaking at Imola did not allow Alpine to outperform the Sochaux brand.
Still no rain
In the GT3 category, the BMW #46 from WRT lost the lead in the race. The Ferrari #21 from Vista AF Corse took the lead just before the first pit stops. However, the penalty given to François Herriau allowed the German car to retake the lead.
Although rain was forecasted, it had still not arrived by the end of the first hour of the race. The various predictions do not clearly indicate what will happen. But if it were to arrive, it would not be before 3:30 PM.
