Antonio Giovinazzi leads after two of the Six Hours of Imola in the #51 Ferrari 499P, with teammate Nicklas Nielsen approximately six seconds adrift in the #50 car to make it Ferrari one and two.
The leading contingent of the 19-strong FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar field pitted across a number of laps at the turn of the first hour, with early-leader Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari coming off worse, falling back to sixth initially.
Giovanzzi was the major benefactor though and he benefited from the battle for second between Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963 and Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid who was able to get right onto the tail of the Porsche which struggled for pace during a second stint on its tyres.
Nielsen was able to improve to fourth as Frederic Makowiecki also struggled for grip in the #5 Porsche, putting him under pressure from Rene Rast in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 before the German driver pit shortly before the end of the second hour.
Pitting just before Rast was Jean-Karl Bernay in the #11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C, handing over to Carl Wattana Bennett.
The Isotta isn’t going to be troubling the top positions, but a spin on fresh tyres for Bennett followed by another off shortly after would have fired a warning shot to the race leaders that they ought to be careful after pitting.
There was no such trouble for the top runners and Conway, Nielsen and Kubica – who’d dropped to ninth in the second stint aboard the #83 AF Corse 499P came into pit not long after Bennett’s Isotta troubles.
Nielsen jumped the #7 Toyota in pit-lane, with Conway switching with team-mate Nyck de Vries.
Despite enduring a slow stop, Giovinazzi emerged out in front of his Ferrari teammate to maintain the net lead, as the #12 Jota Porsche of Will Stevens and #38 Phil Hanson car ran longer than the rest of the Hypercar pack, just as they did in the first sting.
The Penske Porsches however lost out in the pit-stop cycle with Andre Lotter taking over the #6 car but losing out to the #7 Toyota that it had held at bay throughout the second stint.
Michael Christensen found himself behind a Toyota as well, with Ryo Hirakawa leading the #5 963 in the #8 Toyota.
After two hours Giovinazzi’s near six-second margin over team-mate Nielsen will have Tifosi hearts soaring in Emilia-Romagna.
De Vries sits seven seconds adrift of the two Ferraris in third with Lotterer running fourth in the #6 Porsche.
Hirakawa rounds out the top five ahead of sixth-placed Christensen in the #5 Porsche.
From running toward the front in the early stages of the race, Kubica now finds himself in seventh, impacted by a drive-through penalty for not respecting a Full Course Yellow, and after a late pit-stop for the #12 Jota Porsche, Callum Ilott runs in eighth place.
Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW and Olver Rasmussen in the #38 Jota Porsche round out the top-10.
After missing the majority of the first hour as a major victim of the lap 1 multi-car incident, the #15 BMW has been back up and running, with Marco Wittmann aboard.
In LMGT3 an intriguing battle is playing out amongst the top three.
The #92 Manthey of Porsche 911 of Joel Strum had been duking it out with the second-placed #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 of Francois Heriau, but has started to eke out a small advantage.
Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi is aboard the #46 WRT BMW M4 and is being motivated over team radio to pursue the Ferrari.
The #85 Iron Dames car, which struggled with electrical issues after being caught in an opening lap clash with the #91 Porsche of Yasser Shahin, was forced to retire.
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