{"id":8035,"date":"2025-04-21T12:36:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8035"},"modified":"2025-04-21T12:36:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:36:49","slug":"ferrari-takes-fia-world-endurance-championship-victory-on-home-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/21\/ferrari-takes-fia-world-endurance-championship-victory-on-home-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari Takes FIA World Endurance Championship Victory on Home Soil"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Ryan Hardwick wins LMGT3 class\u00a0with co-drivers Richard Lietz and\u00a0Riccardo Pera\u00a0<\/em>
\n21 April 2025\u2014Ferrari maintained its perfect start to the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign in front of more than 65,500 fans in the 6 Hours of Imola, as Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi converted pole position into a popular triumph.<\/p>\n

In a race that majored on strategic skill and astute tyre choice, the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P Hypercar always looked most likely to win \u2013 at one stage holding a lead of almost half-a-minute over its closest pursuer \u2013 but a series of incidents and twists-and-turns meant the result could never be taken for granted.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a second safety car intervention with just over two hours remaining on the clock shuffled the pack, but despite coming under pressure from Porsche, Toyota and BMW, the No. 51 crew boldly held their nerve around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari to take the checkered flag almost ten seconds to the good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a superb weekend,\u201d acknowledged Giovinazzi, who remains undefeated in Hyperpole in FIA WEC in 2025. \u201cSince Friday, we\u2019ve always been on top. There were a lot of Full Course Yellows and safety cars in the race, which is not easy to manage at all, but the team did a fantastic job and we were able to take all the right decisions. The car was fantastic, my team-mates were fantastic and the tifosi were fantastic. It\u2019s been an amazing Sunday!\u201d<\/p>\n

The success \u2013 Ferrari\u2019s first overall endurance racing win on Italian soil as a factory effort since 1973 \u2013 has vaulted Giovinazzi, Calado and Pier Guidi to the summit of the Drivers\u2019 standings with a quarter of the season now in the rear-view mirror, while the Prancing Horse maintains a healthy advantage in the chase for the Manufacturers\u2019 crown.<\/p>\n

BMW and Alpine exploited an alternative strategy to claim the remaining two places on the podium. Despite Ren\u00e9 Rast picking up rear wing damage in a clash with Mike Conway\u2019s Toyota at the Curva Gresini, the No. 20 BMW M Team WRT Hypercar the German shares with Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde fought back to clinch second.<\/p>\n

That marked the trio\u2019s maiden top three finish in the championship, with Alpine Endurance Team making the most of a strong qualifying performance to round out the rostrum in third, as Mick Schumacher, Jules Gounon and Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Makowiecki wound up less than four seconds further in arrears.<\/p>\n

AF Corse sealed FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams honors in fourth with its Robert Kubica, Philip Hanson and Yifei Ye-piloted Ferrari, followed by the best of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing entries \u2013 the No. 8 GR010 Hybrid \u2013 in fifth.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9bastien Buemi was one of the stars of the race during his stint behind the wheel, as the Swiss star unleashed a defensive masterclass to keep Ferrari\u2019s Antonio Fuoco at bay. The Italian\u2019s team-mate Nicklas Nielsen brought spectators to their feet early on, as he scythed his way through the field from last on the 18-car grid up into the top six.<\/p>\n

The No. 15 BMW was another podium protagonist before ultimately slipping to sixth ahead of the No. 7 Toyota, with 2024 Drivers\u2019 champions K\u00e9vin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor scoring their first points of the season in eighth. Much like Buemi, the pair\u2019s stablemate in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 Hypercar, Matt Campbell, was a standout performer as the Australian confidently fended off a determined Giovinazzi for lap-after-lap in the fourth hour on higher-mileage tyres.<\/p>\n

REIGNING CHAMPIONS DENY HOME HERO IN LMGT3<\/p>\n

The Imola crowd was treated to a nail-biting finish in the LMGT3 category, as \u2013 for the second event in succession \u2013 the battle for glory went right down to the wire.<\/p>\n

This time, Qatar duellists Corvette and McLaren were replaced by Porsche and BMW. Having secured pole position in qualifying in the hands of multiple MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi, the Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO carried that stellar form over into the race, with Ahmad Al-Harthy opening up an early lead before his Italian team-mate further increased the crew\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a subsequent clash between the home hero and Simon Mann in the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari that pitched the latter into the Rivazza gravel trap resulted in a stop-and-go penalty, dropping the BMW to eighth.<\/p>\n

A searing charge by Kelvin van der Linde then hauled the No. 46 car right onto the tail of race leader Richard Lietz in the closing stages, but try as he might, the South African was unable to prise the door open as his Manthey 1st Phorm rival resolutely stood his ground in the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3.<\/p>\n

The Austrian\u2019s dogged defense delivered reigning LMGT3 title-winner Manthey its first victory of the campaign following a disappointing curtain-raising contest in Qatar, while forcing fan-favourite Rossi to settle for the runner-up spoils in his home race for the second consecutive year. After fighting up at the sharp end throughout, Akkodis ASP Team took third and fourth, thereby cementing Lexus\u2019 breakthrough podium finish in FIA WEC competition.<\/p>\n

Round three of the 2025 FIA WEC campaign \u2013 the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium \u2013 will take place on 8-10 May.<\/p>\n

Watch every moment of the action, live or on demand, via the official FIA WEC TV app \u2013 your full-access pass to the FIA World Endurance Championship. For further information, click\u00a0HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Ryan Hardwick wins LMGT3 class\u00a0with co-drivers Richard Lietz and\u00a0Riccardo Pera\u00a0 21 April 2025\u2014Ferrari maintained its perfect start to the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-fia-wec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8037,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8035\/revisions\/8037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}