Tifosi satisfied: Giovinazzi and Rossi claim Imola pole

Text & Images: Rick Kiewiet

Antonio Giovinazzi and Valentino Rossi gave the Tifosi what they came for: Ferrari on pole and fan favorite Rossi leading the LMGT3 class. Giovinazzi will be joined on the front row of the grid by the #83 sister car of Rubica, Ye and Hanson.

The gap between Giovinazzi and Kubica was considerable: 0.758. Leaving little doubt about who's the favorite for tomorrow's race. The #50 was absent from the Hyperpole session as Antonio Fuoco's fastest laptimes were deleted for track limits.

Behind Kubica was the #15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor, who stayed ahead of both Toyota's in p4 (#8) and p5 (#7).

Also an encouraging starting position for Peugeot as Jean-Eric Vergne qualified the #93 on p7, sandwiched by both Alpines on p5 (#36) and p7 (#35).

Alex Lynn qualified the #12 JOTA Cadillac in p9, just ahead of the sole Porsche 963 in Hyperpole, the #6 in the hands of Kevin Estre.

Valentino Rossi claimed his maiden Pole Position in WEC on home soil, staying little over 3 tenths ahead of Clemens Schmid in the #87 Lexus.

Third was the #27 Aston Martin of Zach Robichon, followed by Simon Mann in the #21 Ferrari. This makes that the top-4 consists of 4 different manufacturers: BMW, Lexus, Aston Martin and Ferrari.

Gehrsitz put the #78 Lexus in p5, just ahead of the first Mustang: the #88 of Levorato.

Tomorrow's race starts at 13.00h local time, that's 12.00h in the U.K.