Ferrari set the tempo on residence soil because the FIA World Endurance Championship rolled into Imola on Friday, with the Italian squad topping Free Observe 1 and sharing the quickest time with BMW in a ultra-close second session
Ferrari continued its robust begin to the 2025 FIA WEC season in opening follow for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Imola, as Robert Kubica set the benchmark in Free Observe 1.
In damp-but-drying situations, the Polish driver put the #83 AF Corse Ferrari on the prime of the timing screens with a 1:32.065s lap, set on his last flying effort because the monitor dried considerably. That point put him 0.236s away from the #50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar pushed by Antonio Fuoco, who had claimed pole eventually 12 months’s inaugural Imola WEC spherical.
The #12 Cadillac Racing entry, run by Hertz Workforce JOTA, was third-fastest within the session with Alex Lynn behind the wheel.
Later within the afternoon, Free Observe 2 delivered a remarkably tight contest on the prime of the Hypercar leaderboard. Ferrari and BMW astonishingly posted similar lap occasions, with each Fuoco and Dries Vanthoor recording a 1:30.957s, a uncommon incidence in FIA WEC historical past. The one different recognized occasion got here in qualifying for the 6 Hours of Shanghai in 2014, when Porsche and Toyota shared the identical common lap time.
Vanthoor’s effort within the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 underscored the Bavarian producer’s rising kind, as they matched Ferrari blow for blow across the 4.9km Imola circuit.
Taking third within the session was the #36 Alpine A424, with Mick Schumacher delivering Les Bleus’ quickest lap of the day, a 1:31.283s, in his first WEC season.
With Ferrari setting the tone early and BMW exhibiting spectacular pace, an intense battle is brewing within the Hypercar discipline because the motion ramps up in direction of qualifying and Sunday’s six-hour race at Imola.
