Imola 6 Hours: Ferrari wins at home, but Valentino…

Ferrari came out on top at the end of a thrilling race on home ground at Imola to claim its second victory of the 2025 World Endurance Championship season.

James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi triumphed aboard the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar by only 8.4s at the end of a race they threatened to dominate.

Two full safety cars and two of the virtual kind turned the Imola 6 Hours into a tactical chess game in which BMW, Alpine, Toyota and Porsche emerged as contenders in the latter stages.

BMW and Alpine equalled their best results in the WEC so far with their respective LMDh machinery with second and third positions.

The #20 WRT BMW Hybrid V8 shared by Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde took the runner-up position with the Alpine driven by Frederic Makowiecki, Jules Gounon and Mick Schumacher 3.8s in arrears.

The winning factory AF Corse Ferrari dominated the opening hours from pole position, Calado establishing some breathing space over the chasing customer AF-run customer 499P with Phil Hanson at the wheel.

At the first round of pitstops at the end of the opening hour, the leading Ferrari had an advantage of nearly 3s over the privateer entry, while best-of-the-rest Kevin Magnussen in the #15 WRT BMW was a further 15s in arrears.

The two Ferraris were still sitting pretty at the head of the field late in the second hour when the first safety car was called.

The intervention allowed the Hypercar teams to mix up their strategies on fuel and tyres, which opened up the race over the final two thirds of the contest.

Pier Guidi was in front before the majority of the leading contenders made splash-and-dash fuel stops in the last hour, the Italian calling into the pits for the final time with just 12 minutes left on the clock.

The BMW and the Alpine had made their stops slightly earlier after short-fuelling in order to gain track position during the second safety car, but moved back up the order in the dying minutes.

The BMW came back from a clash with the #7 Toyota with Mike Conway at the wheel that resulted in a damaged rear bodywork.

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Rene Rast, Robin Frijns, Sheldon Van Der Linde (Photo by: Shameem Fahath)

The customer AF Ferrari that Hanson shared with Yifei Ye and Robert Kubica took fourth after the last-named ducked out of the lead with eight minutes remaining.

The #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid LMH shared by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi took fifth, having gone onto an alternate strategy after losing time with a drive-through penalty for speeding under Full Course Yellow.

The #20 BMW in which Magnussen was teamed with Raffaelo Marciello and Dries Vanthoor rounded out the top six.

Toyota claimed seventh with the GR010 in which Conway was joined by Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi, ahead of the best of the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 LMDhs, driven by Matt Campbell, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre.

Peugeot and Cadillac got a car each in the points, #93 taking ninth for the French manufacturer, #12 10th for the American.

The efforts of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco to fight back from last position on the Hypercar grid came to nought in the final hour.

Fuoco was battling with Buemi when contact into the Tamburello chicane sent him into the gravel, the Ferrari sustaining a rear puncture that left it down in 15th position at the chequered flag.

LMGT3: Rossi loses out

#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Kelvin Van Der Linde, #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera (Photo by: Andreas Beil)

Home hero Valentino Rossi lost out on victory in LMGT3 with the BMW WRT team by less than a second.

Kelvin van der Linde at the wheel of the #46 BMW M4 GT3 Evo was all over the back of the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3-R driven by Richard Lietz over the final lap.

The BMW, in which Ahmad Al Harthy joined Rossi and van der Linde, was just three tenths behind the Porsche co-driven by Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera at the flag.

Rossi looked on course to follow up on his first WEC pole position with a maiden victory until he made contact with the #21 Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Simon Mann attempting to retake the lead.

The resulting drive-through penalty deprived him and his team-mates of a near-certain victory.

Third in class went to the Auto Sport Promotion Lexs RC F GT3 shared by Arnold Robin, Finn Gehrsitz and Esteban Masson.