Toyota leads ahead of Ferrari at WEC 6 Hours of Imola
19th April 2026Toyota’s #8 car, driven by Ryo Hirakawa, heads the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Imola ahead of the Ferrari world champion, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Feature image credit: CC
The halfway mark of the Imola race has been crossed, and Ferrari has lost the top spot in the overall leaderboard to Toyota’s #8 car. Three hours remain on the first race of the WEC season, as the season opener continues.
After the opening hour, the session had been reduced to a virtual safety car stop, which was upgraded to a full safety car. It allowed the marshals to extract the stranded LMGT3 #87 Lexus. The brief safety car spell was quickly brought to an end within 20 minutes of the new hour.
However, that was not the only safety car intervention, as Nick Cassidy, in the #93 Peugeot, beached his car just after the two-hour mark.
On cold tyres exiting the pit lane, Cassidy suffered a snap of oversteer, and the car unsettled as he corrected the slide. It sent him into a spin and into the gravel trap. He was soon extracted from the gravel and returned to the track through an access road.
Returning to the circuit, Cassidy’s car had spat out gravel onto the circuit, forcing the marshals to clear away the debris.
At that point, the #8 Toyota had already taken the race lead ahead of Pier Guidi. The top two remained unchanged going into the halfway point, but Alpine had found its way into the top three with Antonio Felix Da Costa at the helm, in the #35 Alpine.
Further down the field, in the LMGT3 class, Garage 59 remained out in front ahead of BMW’s #69 Team WRT and Corvette’s TF Sport #33.
There is an expectation of rain in the final three hours of this race. It’s still all to play for in Imola.
Hypercar top three:
- Toyota #8
- Ferrari #51
- Alpine #35
LMGT3 top three:
- Garage 59 #10
- Team WRT #69
- TP Sport #33
Read more World Endurance Championship content here:
- Ferrari heads 6 Hours of Imola after opening hour
- 6 Hours of Imola: The latest weather forecast for WEC opener
- 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
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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.
