This 2025 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Imola race report was compiled by regular endurance-racing correspondent and motorsport fundi, Dr Nick van der Meulen.

The second round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship took place at Imola, Italy. It is a circuit steeped in history, even though it was only introduced to international racing in 1979 when the F1 circus ran a non-championship event there. The circuit is known for being the venue of the darkest weekend in Formula 1 history. Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna lost their lives here 31 years ago. Being in Italy, the Tifosi were out in force to support their beloved Ferrari. And the Prancing Horse didn’t disappoint.

Follow Double Apex on Instagram and Facebook where we share more car content.

Seeing Red… and Yellow

Ferrari dominated the weekend, beginning proceedings by locking out the front row in qualifying. The #51 (Giovinazzi/Pier Guidi/Calado) took pole position ahead of AF Corse #83 (Kubica/Hanson/Ye). The #50 trio (Fuoco/Melina/Nielsen), on the other hand, had to start last of the Hypercars, as each lap posted was cancelled due to track limit infringements.

#51 ran out front trouble free for most of the race. But the race was reset at the four-hour mark with the emergence of the safety car due to a GT incident. The three Ferraris all gambled on soft rubber for the remaining two hours, while their rivals were on medium-compound tyres. The circuit was gentle on tyre wear, as teams ran the equivalent of a one stop strategy over a six-hour period.

Alessandro Pier Guidi struggled at the restart, but managed to keep his Porsche, BMW and Toyota rivals at bay. He eked out a lead before his final pitstop of the race. He coasted to victory, taking Ferrari’s second victory of the season. #83 ran well for much of the race and appeared to have enough energy in hand to finish on the podium, but it was not to be. Robert Kubica brought the yellow Ferrari home in fourth place.

#50 worked hard to get into the top 10 and switched strategy in the final two hours, pitting again shortly after the final safety car. Soon, Antonio Fuoco was vying for the lead against the might of Sebastian Buemi in Toyota #8. The two came to blows and Fuoco limped back to the pits with a puncture. He brought the car home 15th.

Click here to read about the likelihood of a Formula One race coming to SA soon.

Getting Faster

BMW were fast throughout the weekend and were the main rivals to Ferrari this weekend. BMW #15 ran strongly in third place for most of the race, vying for second place with Porsche #6 (Estre/L. Vanthoor/Campbell) and Toyota #7 Conway/ De Vries/Kobayashi). The late dash to the pits for most of the top runners compromised them, however, and finished sixth. Teammate #20 (Rast/Frijns/S. van der Linde) were also running in the top six, and benefitted by having to perform a shorter pitstop than their rivals in the closing stages of the race and finished an excellent second.

Other Challengers

Toyota looked much stronger at Imola than at Qatar. Unfortunately, #8 (Buemi/Hirakawa/Hartley) received a penalty early on and they spent the rest of the race trying to make up ground. Stablemate #7 ran in the top five for virtually the entire race, with Kobayashi, in particular pushing hard to head the chasing pack behind the leading Ferrari. It all fell apart for the #7 at the final pitstop dash, falling to seventh place at the chequered flag, while #8 finished a fine fifth.

Alpine had a strong weekend at Imola. As with Toyota, one of the machines was penalised early in the race. #35 (Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi) received a drive-through penalty for an altercation with the sister #36 (Ounon/Makowiecki/Schumacher) and spent the rest of the race recovering from it. The sister machine ran strongly and finished an excellent third, following the final pitstops.

Tight Competition

Penske Porsche #6 was unlucky not to finish on the podium. The team ran strongly and battled Toyota #7 and BMW #15 for a podium finish, but the final pitstop foiled their chances. The team finished eighth, as a result. The remaining two Porsches finished outside the points. Peugeot #93 (Vergne/Jensen/Di Resta) and JOTA Cadillac #12 (Stevens/Lynn/Nato) rounded off the points-paying positions.

LMGT3 Winners

Further down the grid in the LMGT3 class, WRT BMW #46 (Al Harthy/Rossi/K. van der Linde), with Valentino Rossi behind the wheel, blasted to pole position – to the delight of the partisan crowd. The machine ran strongly in the top two for the first four hours, before Rossi went for a gap to pass AF Corse Ferrari #21 (Heriau/Mann/Rovera). The gap closed as Mann took the racing line and Rossi punted the Ferrari off the circuit and into the tyre barrier. This brought out the safety car, which turned the race on its head for many teams.

Rossi was penalised a stop-and-go penalty, which resulted in co-driver van der Linde returning to the track in ninth place in class. The South African charged through the field to chase down world champions Manthey Porsche #92 (Hardwick/Pera/Lietz) to vie for victory. The Porsche and BMW were nose-to-tail on the final lap, but van der Linde could not make the pass for victory, finishing 0,3 seconds behind.

The two Akkodis Lexus, #78 (Robin/Gehrsitz/Masson) and #87 (Umbrarescu/Schmid/Lopez) finished third and fourth, respectively, despite #87 receiving a penalty during the race. Vista AF Corse Ferrari #54 (Rigon/Flohr/Castelacci) rounded off the top five finishers. WRT BMW #31 (Shahin/Boguslavskiy/Farfus) finished outside the points, after a high-speed collision with #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (James/Robichon/Drudi), pitching the Aston into the wall.

Points Scored

The top ten finishers in each class score points. There are three points-scoring allocation forms. There are different allocations for 6-hour, 8-10-hour and 24-hour events, respectively. In the Hypercar class, Pier Guidi/Giovinazzi/Calado lead the championship with 50 points. Kubica/Ye/Hanson are second with 39 and Molina/Fuoco/Nielsen third with 38 points.  Rast/Frijns/Sheldon van der Linde lie fourth in the standings (27 points).

Keating/Edgar/Juncadella lead the LMGT3 class with 44 points, ahead of Robin/Gehrsitz (33 points). Saucy/Cottingham/Baud lie third on 27 points. Kelvin van der Linde/Al Harthy/Rossi lie sixth in the standings with 19 points .

The third round of the World Endurance Championship takes place in Belgium, with the 6 Hours of Spa on 11 May 2025.