The No. 8 Toyota TR010 led the No. 51 Ferrari 499P by less than a second at the halfway mark of the 6 Hours of Imola, but the real story was the carnage behind them. Two drive-through penalties for yellow flag infractions gutted the races of the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R and the No. 50 Ferrari. What should have been a straightforward season opener on a sunny Italian afternoon turned into a strategy bloodbath with storms looming on the horizon.
It started promisingly enough for Ferrari. The No. 51 car secured pole position at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit, and James Calado controlled the early running. Brendon Hartley, starting second in the Toyota, actually lost a position at the start when Miguel Molina’s No. 50 Ferrari jumped him into the opening corner, pushing the Japanese manufacturer’s title contender back to third.
Then the safety cars came, and everything fractured.
The first caution flew when the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus parked at the side of the track during the second hour. Will Stevens in the No. 12 Cadillac played the strategy perfectly, pitting under the Virtual Safety Car period that preceded the full-course yellow. When racing resumed, Stevens passed Molina for third on track and then inherited the lead as both Calado and Hartley cycled through their pit stops.
Cadillac, for a brief and tantalizing moment, looked like it might steal the show at Imola. That moment didn’t last. WEC rookie Nick Cassidy spun his No. 93 Peugeot into the gravel at Tamburello — cold tires after a pit stop, a snap of oversteer, and a rookie mistake that brought out the second safety car.
Almost simultaneously, race control nailed both Stevens and Nicklas Nielsen, who had just taken over the No. 50 Ferrari from Molina, with drive-through penalties for yellow flag violations. Just like that, two legitimate contenders were buried. Stevens dropped to 15th, Nielsen fell to 16th, and both sat 45 seconds adrift of the leaders at the three-hour mark.
Toyota pounced. Ryo Hirakawa, who took over from Hartley, benefited from a pit stop roughly five seconds faster than Ferrari’s corresponding exchange to Pier Guidi. That gap proved decisive. Hirakawa slotted into the lead and spent the next hour controlling the pace with the No. 51 Ferrari permanently in his mirrors but never quite close enough to strike.
By the four-hour mark, the Toyota’s advantage had grown to five seconds. Ferrari attempted an undercut by pitting Pier Guidi earlier, but a slight delay entering pit lane cost the Italians their chance. The status quo held.
Behind the leading pair, the fight for the podium was vicious. Antonio Felix da Costa, returning to WEC in the No. 35 Alpine, held third at halfway but came under relentless pressure from Nyck de Vries in the No. 7 Toyota. De Vries, carrying a clear tire advantage, eventually muscled past the Alpine to slot into third, giving Toyota a 1-3 stranglehold on the race.
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Yifei Ye and Kevin Magnussen’s No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 rounded out the top five. Genesis Magma Racing quietly impressed in 11th with its GMR-001, eyeing a points-scoring result on what would be a remarkable debut.
Toyota arrived at Imola carrying momentum from last November’s drought-breaking 1-2 finish in the 8 Hours of Bahrain. The car formerly known as the GR010 had been rebranded as the TR010 over the winter, but the speed clearly carried over. Ferrari, defending both its WEC title and its home honor after winning at Imola for the first time last season, found itself chasing.
In LMGT3, Jonny Edgar’s No. 33 TF Sport Corvette seized the lead from the No. 69 Team WRT BMW after the safety car reshuffle. The No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, dominant early, still lurked in contention.
The weather radar showed storms approaching for the final two hours. On a day already defined by penalties and strategy swings, rain promised to scramble the board one more time.
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