Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Sebastien Buemi led the FIA World Endurance Championship‘s 6 Hours of Imola as the race entered the closing stages.
Initial light rain teased another potential curveball with Ferrari’s 499P Hypercar package having commanded strong for the majority of the race.
Nevertheless, after Alessandrio Pier Guidi (#51 Ferrari) pitted, a tense duel for the lead (virtually P3) ensued with #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driver Sebastien Buemi against #50 Ferrari driver Antonio Fuoco.
Sheldon van der Linde ran in third for the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar ahead of #51 Pier Guidi who pitted ahead of Mick Schumacher’s #36 Alpine A424 Hypercar.
As the fourth racing hour struck, Nyck de Vries of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar chased down Robin Frijns’ #20 WRT BMW Hypercar in pursuit of fourth position.
The Toyota looked marginally stronger though the two Dutchmen asserted enough pace for the gap to narrow down steadily.
Meanwhile Frijns’ #15 WRT BMW team-mate Raffaele Marciello, who was closely behind, took on four new tyres at his recent pit stop which gave him the confidence to pass Jules Gounon’s #36 Alpine.
De Vries eventually made a cunning, opportunistic manoeuvre just before the chicane with two LMGT3s to contend with lapping.
Giovinazzi retook the lead on Matt Campbell’s #6 Porsche Penske 963 after Campbell locked up into Rivazza 1.
A virtual safety car, deployed due to an LMGT3-related incident, marked the point at which rainfall began – albeit as a light drizzle.
The light, intermittent nature of the rain meant that Ferrari took the soft slick tyres – with hope that the rain would increase in severity, or rivals like Toyota who put on the medium slicks which would last longer in the hope that the rainfall did not increase.
Manthey leads ahead of #46 WRT in LMGT3
Richard Lietz of the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 LMGT3.R led ahead of the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo driven by Kelvin van der Linde in front of Jose Maria Lopez’s #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3.
Lexus team-mate Finn Gehrsitz was behind in the #87 machine in fourth ahead of Valentin Hasse Clot’s #10 Racing Spirit of LeMan Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 Evo which started 15th on the grid.
Timur Boguslavskiy of the #31 WRT BMW put up a strong fight with Simon Mann, of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3, and Petru Umbrarescu’s #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus into the fourth racing
Boguslavskiy wrestled into second place with Valentino Rossi ahead of him in the other WRT BMW.
WRT’s leading form deconstructed itself from three occurrences. Firstly, stewards awarded a stop-and-go penalty for the #31 BMW which hit off Ian James’ #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin earlier on.
Then Augusto Farfus took over the #31 BMW and was hit into a spin by #10 Racing Spirit of LeMan driver Eduardo Barrichello at Turn 2 after door-to-door contact.
Mann fought with Rossi for the lead, resulting in the multi-MotoGP champion with contact against the #21 Ferrari having attempted a move on the inside line.
He hit and spun the Ferrari into the barrier, which was recovered during a VSC but only drove to the garage to become the second race retirement.
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