Home success for Ferrari
The 6 Hours of Imola at Italy's Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari was won by the #51 Ferrari 499P/Michelin of Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi in front of 65,000 home fans. The #20 BMW (2nd) and #36 Alpine (3rd) made it three different prototypes on the podium. The soft- and medium-compound versions of the MICHELIN Pilot Sport – at times run together on the same car – provided yet another example of their speed and consistency.
Ferrari followed up its win in Qatar with another on home soil as the FIA World Endurance Championship moved on to Italy for the year's second clash. The Scuderia's pole-sitting #51 prototype dominated the race on MICHELIN Pilot Sport slicks to finish 8.490 and 12.450 seconds clear respectively of the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 and #36 Alpine A424. It was the first time these three makes shared the podium celebrations in the FIA WEC.
Fourth over the line was the #83 Ferrari, chased by the #8 Toyota which came out on top of its duel with the #50 Ferrari, a scrap that will surely be remembered as one of the highlights of the season! The two cars collided several times and even left the track before the Italian Hypercar pitted for a tire change to conclude its weekend of ups and downs.
The race was twice interrupted by Safety Car periods which forced the teams to reconsider their pit-stop and tire strategies with rain looking possible, but the track remained dry throughout. Michelin's partners ran both the soft and medium Pilot Sport slicks – sometimes concurrently on the same car, a ploy chosen by Toyota and Cadillac at the start when the track temperature stood at 27°C.
The afternoon's top-eight was rounded out by the #15 BMW, #7 Toyota and #6 Porsche which led with two hours to go. The #93 Peugeot and #12 Cadillac finished ninth and tenth, while all of the 18 Michelin-equipped Hypercars reached the finish.
FIA WEC action will resume in three weeks' time with Round 3 at another famous circuit – Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps – where the teams, drivers and Michelin will get a chance to fine-tune their preparations for June's Le Mans 24 Hours.