The No. 51 Ferrari 499P of pole-sitter Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado returned to victory on Easter Sunday in Imola, painting the day red. It was the crew’s second WEC win, their first since the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023. Since then, there had been plenty of bad luck and a few mistakes—none of which were seen on the curves and undulations of the Santerno circuit.
The other Ferraris finished off the podium, with the No. 83 of Robert Kubica, Philip Hanson and Yifei Ye in fourth, and the No. 50 of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen in fifteenth after a tough race. BMW claimed second place and Alpine third, both teams running consistent races and cleverly taking advantage of strategy opportunities. In GT3, Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al-Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde came just 0.316 seconds short of victory, following the Pesaro-born driver’s brilliant pole position.
Smooth Start – The race began with the two Ferraris on the front row pulling away cleanly, with James Calado in the No. 51 leading fellow Briton Philip Hanson in the No. 83. Kevin Magnussen in the No. 15 BMW held third and kept both Toyotas at bay for the first two hours. In GT3, Ahmad Al-Harthy, starting from pole in the No. 46 BMW, held the lead for much of his double stint, surrendering it only briefly to the Ferrari of François Heriau. Meanwhile, Nicklas Nielsen staged a remarkable comeback from eighteenth in the No. 50 Ferrari, carving through the field and handing over to Miguel Molina in fifth. Molina then overtook the No. 15 BMW, now driven by Raffaele Marciello, to complete a Ferrari 1-2-3 around mid-race. However, a safety car triggered by contact between Valentino Rossi and the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann shuffled the order and led to divergent Hypercar strategies.
Strategy Games – When the race restarted, the order was turned on its head, with the No. 6 Porsche suddenly taking the lead after not changing tires. Antonio Giovinazzi reclaimed the top spot for the No. 51 Ferrari, and the race remained finely balanced during the final two hours, with Alessandro Pier Guidi taking over at the wheel. Differing fuel loads and tire strategies kept the order in flux, but careful management brought the No. 51 crew to victory by just over eight seconds ahead of the No. 20 BMW of Rast-Frijns-van der Linde, who impressed despite a rear wing change. Third went to the No. 36 Alpine of Jules Gounon, Frédéric Makowiecki and a strong Mick Schumacher, scoring his second WEC podium. The No. 83 Ferrari of Kubica-Hanson-Ye finished fourth after losing time in the pits, while the No. 50 Ferrari of Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen dropped out of sequence due to early pit stops and later suffered a puncture after contact with the No. 8 Toyota, ending up only fifteenth.
Rossi Second in a Sprint Finish – Valentino Rossi missed out on a home win in GT3 by just 0.316 seconds. The No. 46 BMW M4 crossed the line second, just behind the No. 92 Porsche of Italy’s Riccardo Pera, Ryan Hardwick and Richard Lietz. After two commanding hours at the front by Ahmad Al-Harthy, the amateur driver of the lineup, Rossi took the wheel in third and capitalized on a penalty for the leader, passing his teammate’s car and building a 30-second lead with a strong pace. Just over two hours from the end, though, Rossi risked throwing it all away with a collision with Simon Mann’s Ferrari 296 GT3, which was forced into the barriers and retired. A stop-and-go penalty dropped the car, now driven by Kelvin van der Linde, to ninth. The South African then launched a spectacular comeback, reaching the leader in the final two laps and attempting an overtake that ultimately didn’t stick. Third place in GT3 went to the No. 78 Lexus of Robin-Gehrsitz-Masson, with the best-finishing Ferrari in fifth place, driven by Flohr-Castellacci-Rigon.
Championship Standings – Hypercar:
After the Imola race, Giovinazzi-Calado-Pier Guidi move into the lead of the World Championship with 50 points, ahead of fellow Ferrari crews Kubica-Hanson-Ye (39 points) and Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen (38 points). Top ten race results:
Ferrari #51 (Giovinazzi-Calado-Pier Guidi) – 212 laps
BMW #20 (Rast-Frijns-S. van der Linde) – +8.490
Alpine #36 (Schumacher-Gounon-Makowiecki) – +12.450
Ferrari #83 (Kubica-Hanson-Ye) – +20.597
Toyota #8 (Buemi-Hartley-Hirakawa) – +23.210
BMW #15 (Marciello-D. Vanthoor-Magnussen) – +25.516
Toyota #7 (Conway-De Vries-Kobayashi) – +31.478
Porsche #6 (Campbell-L. Vanthoor-Estre) – +41.280
Peugeot #93 (Vergne-Jensen-Di Resta) – +50.904
Cadillac #12 (Nato-Stevens-Lynn) – +53.300
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