Ferrari’s dominance of the top of the timesheets at Imola came to an end in this afternoon’s Free Practice 2, as Charles Milesi set a new fastest time of the week aboard his #35 Alpine Endurance Team A424.
The Frenchman set the fastest time on four different occasions, during a qualifying simulation at the start of the session. The best of these was a 1:30.898, the first sub-1:31 lap of the week so far. It also meant an A424 led a practice session for the first time since its debut back in 2024.
Second went to the #7 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid of Nyck De Vries, who ended up 0.114 seconds behind Milesi after trading the top spot with him early on.
The best of the Ferrari 499Ps was third, following a 1:31.036 from Antonio Fuoco, with the sister #51 and #83 entries fourth and seventh respectively. Ferrari, notably, split its qualifying simulation between the soft and medium tyres, as it prepares to go for its third consecutive Imola pole position tomorrow.
The #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen was fifth, with the #20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 – in which Robin Frijns had a half-spin at Acque Minerali early on – sixth.
14 cars were covered by less than one second, with Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001’s still at the back, but only 1.389 and 1.932 seconds off the pace respectively.
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s #38 V-Series.R led the mileage count with 55 laps, with all 17 Hypercars completing at least 39 laps.
In LMGT3, debutant Kobe Pauwels led the way in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage, after setting a 1:42.081 in the closing minutes.
The Belgian, who is racing in place of Dudu Barrichello this weekend, displaced longtime session, and fellow rookie, Hadrien David in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3, by 0.070 seconds.
Heart of Racing Team’s Zacharie Robichon was third fastest, ahead of the #87 Lexus, whilst TF Sport’s pair of Corvette Z06 LMGT3.Rs completed the top six, with the #33 entry ahead of the Racing Team Turkey-backed #34 car which spent over half the session in its garage with an issue.
The #34 Corvette eventually turned 23 laps, with the rest of the LMGT3 field, headed by the 50 laps from the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3 Evo, covering at least 40 laps.
Free Practice 2 ran without any major incidents throughout the 90-minute affair which took place in hot, sunny conditions. Most teams elected to run a qualifying simulation early on, before switching focus to race running.
Track action at Imola continues tomorrow with FP3 at 10:30 CEST, ahead of the all-important qualifying session at 14:30 CEST.
Image courtesy of DPPI
