MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi claimed his maiden LMGT3 pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship‘s 6 Hours of Imola.
The nine-time MotoGP World Champion came out on top of the competitive LMGT3 field to claim his first pole position in front of his home crowd.
LMGT3 qualifying lacked disruption or incidents enabling drivers to set about quick lap times in the fight for pole, which Rossi emerged on top.
For the second time this year, the new qualifying format got underway with the FIA Bronze-graded drivers participating in the Q1 session in the pursuit of a place inside the top-10.
For the teams who reached the threshold, the Silver-rated drivers then compete in the Q2 (Hyperpole) session to fight for pole.
Ahmad Al Harthy topped the Q1 session in the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo by a 0.767-second margin over the only AF Corse driver in the top-10, Francois Heriau.
United Autosports, who claimed 1-2 in qualifying last time out at Qatar, were the only team to have both cars into Q2.
Rossi sets quickest lap time, twice
Rossi initially set an outright fastest lap time before it was deleted due to track limits excursions.
Nevertheless, the Italian set another strong lap time, a 1:42.355, in his #46 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo.
Clemens Schmid was 0.306 seconds away from Rossi’s pole time in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3.
Zach Robichon took third place in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 Evo with a 1:42.703 lap time.
AF Corse’s Simon Mann finished fourth in the #21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 with a 1:42.920.
Finn Gehrsitz finished fifth in the #78 Akkodis Lexus (1:43.132) ahead of sixth-placed Giammarco Levorato’s #88 Proton Ford Mustang LMGT3.
Riccardo Pera (1:43.376) finished in seventh for Manthey’s #92 Porsche 911 GT3.R followed by both United Autosports McLarens.
Sean Gelael (1:43.413) took eighth ahead of team-mate Sebastien Baud (1:43.721) with TF Sport’s Rui Andrade (1:43.807) rounding out the top-10 in the #81 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R
Meanwhile Thomas Flohr of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari was short of making it into Hyperpole after finishing in P11.
Yasser Shahin finished 12th in the #31 WRT BMW with a 1:44.376. Bernardo Soasa took 13th place in the #77 Proton Ford.
Iron Dames driver Celia Martin claimed 14th in the #85 Porsche ahead of Derek Deboer’s #10 Racing Spirit of LeMan Aston Martin.
Ben Keating took 16th in the #33 TF Sport Corvette.
Both Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3s rounded out the field with Claudio Schiavoni’s #60 in P17 and Christian Reid’s #61 machine in P18.
The six-hour race starts tomorrow Sunday 20 April at 12:00 BST or 13:00 local time.
