Ferrari denied at home as Toyota snatch Imola WEC victory

Sébastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley have won the 6 Hours of Imola with Toyota, the first race of the 2026 World Endurance Championship (WEC). Ferrari (Giovinazzi, Calado and Pier Guidi) finished second. Third place went to Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway (Toyota).

Thanks to a fabulous lap by Antonio Giovinazzi, Ferrari clinched pole in Imola on Saturday; a circuit where dominance by the Scuderia was expected. Even so, the #50 sister car did not line up second, that spot went to the leading Toyota.

Once the race got underway, it took only a few corners for the running order to be restored. Miguel Molina passed Brendon Hartley to tuck in behind Ferrari teammate James Calado. Calado was considerably faster than the second Ferrari in the opening stint. A virtual safety car prevented Calado from immediately pulling further and further away.

After the virtual safety car, Molina lost ground as that Ferrari was on an alternate strategy. As a result, the Toyota that had reclaimed second with Brendon Hartley pulled away from him. Keeping up with the leading Ferrari proved beyond the New Zealander. Each lap, the former Toro Rosso driver dropped a few tenths, allowing Calado to keep a firm grip on proceedings in front of more than 92,000 spectators.

After a couple of hours it was time for the first driver changes, with Ryo Hirakawa and Nyck de Vries getting in at Toyota, Paul di Resta at Peugeot, and Robin Frijns at BMW. Nick Cassidy also got his chance, only to climb back out again after four corners. On tires that were too cold, the New Zealander slid off the track in his debut, triggering a lengthy safety car.

Once back to green, Nyck de Vries delivered a superb stint, climbing to third. That was still a long way behind his teammate Hirakawa in the leading Toyota, who was stretching the gap. At the restart, the Japanese driver had overtaken the Ferrari and then gradually increased the gap to the #51.

In the final hour and a half of the race, what some had hoped for arrived: rain. As the drops fell, Toyota managed to take both first and second. A one-two was far from certain, though, as Antonio Giovinazzi (Ferrari) latched onto the rear of Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota in second. Passing proved difficult on the narrow Imola circuit.

In the end Toyota had to yield, and Giovinazzi moved up to second. Kobayashi had no answer to that. The win was out of reach for Giovinazzi, however, as it went to the leading Toyota. The Japanese marque’s second car remained third. Alpine (Milesi, Habsburg and Félix da Costa) took fourth, ahead of the BMW duo René Rast and Robin Frijns. The #50 Ferrari crossed the line in fifth.

In the GT class, victory went to BMW, a day after Juha Miettinen was killed on the Nordschleife in a GT car from the German brand. In Imola, Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson were the best. Corvette finished second, with Dutchman Nicky Catsburg delivering a strong final stint and coming within sight of the win.

While Max Verstappen was in action at the Nordschleife, two of the Verstappen Racing drivers were at work in Imola. Jules Gounon did so with Alpine, Daniel Juncadella with Genesis. The latter made his debut in the Hypercar class, although it was not a memorable first outing.

Early in the race, the Hyundai brand’s car encountered problems. After spending more than half an hour in the pits, the race for Juncadella and his two teammates became primarily a valuable test session for the coming rounds.

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