Toyota outgunned Ferrari on track and in the pits to claim victory in the World Endurance Championship’s Imola opener on Sunday.
Sébastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley clinched the top spot in the upgraded #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid, granting the Japanese manufacturer a win on its 100th WEC start.
The pole-sitting #51 Ferrari 499P crewed by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi had to settle for second, while Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway completed the podium in the #7 Toyota.
The race boiled down to a two-horse battle between the two manufacturers, with the likes of Alpine, BMW and Peugeot unable to trouble the frontrunners for the majority of the day.
At the start, Calado pulled away cleanly from pole position in the #51 Ferrari, with team-mate Molina taking advantage of soft tyres to pass Hartley’s Toyota for second.
Ferrari held a 1-2 for about an hour before a faster service from the Toyota crew allowed Hartley to regain the position he had lost to Molina.
Toyota then rolled the dice towards the end of the second hour, bringing in the #8 for a driver change without switching tyres.
This allowed Hirakawa, who took over from Hartley, to assume the lead of the race, ahead of the #51 Ferrari now driven by Pier Guidi.
The strategy played into Toyota’s hands when Hypercar debutant Nick Cassidy beached the #93 Peugeot 9X8 on cold tyres on his out lap, bringing out the VSC and granting the #8 TR010 Hybrid a free pitstop.
Both the lead Toyota and the chasing Ferrari came into the pits under caution, but Hirakawa returned on track with his lead intact – and now also on fresh tyres.
Ferrari responded to Toyota’s tactics by bringing in Pier Guidi early during the next pitstop cycle but failed to undercut Hirakawa, who went on to extend his advantage to over four seconds.
In the meantime, the #7 Toyota had worked its way back to third place by extending its tyre life, having dropped as low as seventh in the first stint.
Another stop without changing the tyres allowed the #7 Toyota to rejoin ahead of Pier Guidi and hold back the Ferrari driver, helping Hirakawa cement his position at the front in the penultimate hour.
The #51 Ferrari managed to retake second when the #7 Toyota took four new tyres at its final pitstop, but by this stage Buemi had built a lead of 10 seconds at the front of the field.
With the rain failing to arrive despite a looming threat in the final two hours, Buemi took the chequered flag with a winning margin of 13s. The result marked Toyota’s second consecutive victory in the WEC, following the #7 car’s win in November’s Bahrain finale, and the first for the #8 crew since 2024.
The #51 Ferrari trio could make no inroads in the final stint and had to settle for second, while Kobayashi brought home the #7 Toyota in third place.
Despite a constant threat of rain in the second half, the skies cleared in the final hour, allowing the race to run to the finish without drama.
Alpine put on a strong performance in the Imola season opener, with Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Antonio Felix da Costa delivering a clean race to finish fourth in the upgraded #35 A424 LMDh.
René Rast held off a late attack from the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco to complete the top five for the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 he shared with Robin Frijns. That was despite Rast picking up a drive-through penalty midway through the race for a VSC infringement.
Fuoco and his team-mates Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen were in contention for the podium in the first half of the race, but a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement left the #50 Ferrari sixth at the finish.
Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen finished seventh in the #15 BMW, rounding off a strong day for the last-remaining German manufacturer in the WEC.
The #12 Cadillac V-Series.R briefly moved into the lead of the race in the third hour by not pitting under the Virtual Safety Car, but had to cede position almost immediately after the restart to serve a drive-through penalty for a yellow-flag offense.
While the #12 Cadillac finished outside the points, Earl Bamber and Sébastien Buemi claimed eighth in the sister #38 entry, ahead of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble in the best of the Aston Martin Valkyrie LMHs.
The top 10 was rounded out by AF Corse’s satellite #83 Ferrari driven by Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye.
Peugeot missed out on a points finish despite the #94 9X8 running strongly early on, particularly with Malthe Jakobsen at the wheel.
Genesis made its long-awaited WEC debut at Imola, with Pipo Derani, Andre Lotterer and Mathys Jaubert finishing 15th in the best of the GMR-001s. The sister #19 LMDh was delayed by an early sensor issue that consigned it to the garage for half an hour.
#69 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO: Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson, Daniel Harper
Photo by: Jakob Ebrey / LAT Images via Getty Images
WRT took top honours in the LMGT3 class, with Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson winning the season opener aboard the #69 BMW M4 GT3.
WEC newcomer Garage 59 appeared certain to convert pole position into a win as the race entered the final hour, with Antrares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhofer recovering from a slow first pitstop to retake the lead in the fourth hour.
But the #10 McLaren 720S GT3 stopped twice on track with 35 minutes to go due to an alternator problem while comfortably running in the lead, granting the victory to the BMW.
The #69 BMW had jumped from fourth on the grid to second early, before taking the lead in the second hour when McIntosh pulled off a brilliant pass over the #88 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 of Stefano Gattuso at Rivazza.
Constant changes in positions during subsequent pit stop cycles dropped it down the order, but a crucial overtake over the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Jonny Edgar in the fifth hour ultimately secured the win.
Edgar, Blake McDonald and Nicky Catsburg eventually finished second, while the podium was completed by the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Perra and Yasir Shahin.
The #92 Porsche was given a drive-through penalty early in the race for an unsafe release, but recovered strongly in the final two hours. The sister #91 car shared by Ayhancan Guven, Timur Boguslavskiy and James Cottingham also made late strides to finish fourth, ahead of the #32 BMW of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung.
ASP Lexus triggered the first safety car appearance of the race, with the #87 RC F GT3 stopping on track with a technical problem at the start of the second hour. The team’s other car had entered the garage just prior with mechanical issues of its own.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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