WEC IMOLA: FERRARI REMAINS ON TOP IN FP2 AS FUOCO BEATS PORSCHE

Fuoco carried on where fellow works Ferrari driver Yifei Ye left off in first practice aboard the #83 customer AF Corse-run example, setting a lap of 1m30.957s with over an hour remaining in the session that could not be surpassed.

The effort put him 0.342 seconds clear of the championship-leading #6 Penske Porsche Motorsport 963 LMDh in which Kevin Estre had previously clocked the benchmark time.

A late flyer from Robert Shwartzman in the #83 Ferrari he shared with Ye and Robert Kubica vaulted him into third spot, and he ended up 0.374s adrift of Fuoco following a further improvement that didn’t boost his position.

Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH was the only other driver to lap within a second of the outright pace, placing fourth with a best time 0.772s shy. Team-mate Mike Conway was a further eight places and 0.984s behind in the #7 Toyota.

Callum Ilott was fifth-quickest in the best of the privateer Jota Porsche 963s, heading the leading effort from Peugeot’s heavily-revised 9X8 LMH.

Stoffel Vandoorne was 1.539s down on Fuoco in sixth aboard the #94 Peugeot, just 0.004s ahead of Mick Schumacher in the #36 Alpine A424 LMDh and the #93 Peugeot of Jean-Eric Vergne.

James Calado put the second of the factory Ferraris into ninth in the final five minutes of the session, but Rene Rast left it even later to complete the top 10 as the chequered flag was waved in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh.

Mirko Bortolotti set the fastest time in the sole Lamborghini SC63 LMDh that was 1.906s off the pace in 15th, ahead of the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh in which Alex Lynn managed a 1m32.879s.

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo

A last-gasp effort from Alessio Rovera’s Ferrari thwarted another TF Sport Corvette 1-2 in the LMGT3 class.

Charlie Eastwood set the pace in the #81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R courtesy of a 1m41.896s set with 29 minutes remaining, to surpass team-mate Daniel Juncadella’s earlier effort by 0.266s.

But Rovera’s flyer as the session came to its end, aboard the #55 AF Corse-run Ferrari 296, put him into second, 0.187s down on Eastwood.

Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas went fourth-quickest in the best of the Aston Martin Vantages, a little over half a second behind, ahead of Ferrari factory driver Davide Rigon’s #54 296.

2024-04-19T17:21:37Z dg43tfdfdgfd