Ferrari heads 6 Hours of Imola after opening hour
19th April 20266 Hours of Imola is officially underway for the World Endurance Championship, headed by the home heroes and defending world champions, Ferrari’s #51, currently driven by James Calado.
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Ferrari maintained the early lead of the WEC’s curtain raiser, after the #51 car secured pole position on Saturday, with the defending team champions holding an early one-two position at their home race for most of the opening hour.
At the start, the world champions jumped Toyota’s #8, driven by Brendon Hartley, which allowed the #50 Ferrari to slip past into turn one. Across the first hour, the top three remained unchanged, with Calado leading the sister Ferrari car and the #8 Toyota.
After 15 minutes had elapsed on the opening race, the Hypercar had already caught up to the rear of the LMGT3 class. The faster, Hypercar class were on pace to lap the slower class within every 15 minutes.
Hyundai’s Genesis brand had parked their #19 car in the garage after the team’s hypercar had problems early on in their WEC debut. Work continues after the first hour to repair the mechanical problem on the car, with Mathys Jaubert remaining in the cockpit of the GMR-001.
The Bend Manthey’s #92 Porsche, LMGT3, brought out the first yellow flag as it spun out at the Tamburello chicane, gently tagging the #33 TF Sport Corvette. The corvette was able to continue without further issues, whilst the Porsche steered itself back into the right direction before continuing.
There were also issues with the LMGT3 cars of Heart of Racing (#27), Racing Team Turkey by TF (#34) and Iron Lynx (#61), who were all given five-second time penalties added to their pit stop times for starting procedure infringements.
With 10 minutes left on the clock of the opening hour, James Conway, #7 Toyota, was the first Hypercar to pull into the pits for his first stop. Only for a top-up. He drops from seventh to 16th overall, going a lap down as he exited the pit lane, with the remaining Hypercar entrants still left to pit.
With six minutes left on the clock, a bulk of the LMGT3 and Hypercar class jumped into the pits for a top-up of fuel, including Toyota’s #8 and Ferrari’s #50. The race leader, Calado, popped in a lap later.
After the pit stops, there was a slight change in the top three order, but Calado still remained out in front as the hour closed. Hartley had jumped back to second place ahead of Ferrari’s #50, driven by Miguel Molina.
But, in the dying seconds of the first hour, the session had prepared for a virtual safety car deployment as the Lexus #87 Akkodis ASP had pulled to the side of the circuit, up the hill from Acque Minerali. A transmission issue is the reported issue on the Lexus RC F.
Hypercar top 3:
- Ferrari #51
- Toyota #8
- Ferrari #50
LMGT3 top three:
- Proton Competition #88
- Garage 59 #10
- Team WRT #69
Read more World Endurance Championship content here:
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- Schedule: WEC 2026 6 Hours of Imola
- 8 Hours of Bahrain: The schedule for the season finale
- 8 Hours of Bahrain: The latest weather report for season finale
- Alpine takes victory at WEC 6 Hours of Fuji as Corvette win LMGT3
- 6 Hours of Fuji: how has the first half of the race unfolded?
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
