Ferrari flexes its muscles on home ground.
IMOLA, Italy—Antonio Fuoco gave the local tifosi a wonderful gift Saturday afternoon. The Italian clocked a hyperpole time of 1:29:466 to lead a Ferrari 1-2-3 at the Enzo E Dino Ferrari circuit. Fuoco also took the second and third practice sessions before claiming his second pole since last season at Sebring. Ferrari has its third pole since returning to race last year.
Fuoco beat runner-up Robert Schwartzmann by four-tenths of a second, with Alessandro Pier Guidi in the other Ferrari Corse 499P third. The last race winner in Qatar, Porsche Penske Motorsport, led by Kevin Estre, placed fourth, with Matt Campbell’s sister Porsche fifth. Despite a runoff at Tamburello, the Englishman went into the gravel trap but survived to continue qualifying.
Kamui Kobayashi was next in his Toyota GR010, and Rene Rast followed in the BMW M team entry. Eighth was Brendon Hartley in the second Toyota GR010, who was disappointed when he spun at Tosa and ended his hyperbole session. Another driver who did well in the last race, Callum Ilott, finished ninth in his Hertz Team JOTA car, with Julian Andlauer’s Proton Porsche rounding up the top ten.
In the LMGT3 category, it was the Manthey PureRxing Porsche driven by Aliaksander Malykhin, who recorded a 1:42:365 quickest lap ahead of Ian James in the Heart of America Aston Martin Vantage who took second. Third was the BMW M4 with Ahmad Al Harthy driving. The sister BMW M4 with Darren Leung will join him ahead of fifth place Sarah Bovy, who is driving the Iron Dames Lamborghini. Sixth was Giorgio Roda in the Ford Mustang who is driving on his home circuit. The Manthey EMA Porsche took seventh, Yassar Shahin with the Vista AF Corse Ferrari with Francois Heriau in eighth. Ninth went to Thomas Flohr in the sister Vista AF Corse Ferrari, and the United Autosports McLaren of James Cottingham took the final top ten position.
Rain threatened the entire session throughout the day but finally held off enough to cause only one incident. Dries Vanthoor, who spun at Piratella in his BMW M. Team entry.
Today’s race will take place at 300 hours as scheduled.
