The headlines from FP1 at Imola

Hypercar

• The first official track action of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season got underway amid warm spring sunshine at Imola 
• 14 manufacturers and 35 entries took to the track as the world’s most exciting endurance racing series kicked off in earnest in Italy
• Robert Kubica in the AF Corse Ferrari set an early pace of 1m31.739s in the Ferrari 499P that he shares with his fellow 2025 Le Mans-winners Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson; the #83 entry has topped the timesheets in FP1 every year since Imola joined the FIA WEC calendar
• The ever-adoring tifosi cheered on its beloved Prancing Horse, as Ferrari appeared in control on home ground by locking out the top three positions in the 90-minute session
• Just 0.023s in arrears to Kubica’s time was Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P that the Italian pilots alongside Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. In third place were reigning Drivers’ world champions James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 scarlet machine, with Giovinazzi winding up 0.243secs shy of Kubica’s best effort
• The best non-Ferrari was the fourth-placed Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R of Norman Nato and Will Stevens, with the latter posting a best lap of 1m32.183s. This pair are without regular team-mate Alex Lynn, who has been ruled out of the first two races of the season due to scheduled neck surgery 
• Team Peugeot TotalEnergies enjoyed a solid start to the season, as its pair of 9X8 Hypercars ended the session fifth and sixth. The #94 car of Loïc Duval, Théo Pourchaire and Malthe Jakobsen headed the sister #93 entry of Paul di Resta, Stoffel Vandoorne and team newcomer, Nick Cassidy – the times set respectively by Jakobsen and Vandoorne
• TOYOTA RACING placed seventh with the #8 car in the hands of Sébastien Buemi, as the new-look TR010 Hybrid gets set to make its race debut on Sunday – what will be the 100th start for FIA WEC’s most successful manufacturer
• The quickest Alpine was the #35 A424, as António Félix da Costa returns to the series in 2026 with Les Bleues, joining Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi, who lapped eighth-fastest in FP1
• Rounding out the top ten were the pair of new-look BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercars, with Raffaele Marciello in the #15 machine heading stablemate Robin Frijns in the #20 entry
• Genesis Magma Racing completed its first competitive FIA WEC session in 15th and 16th positions, the #19 GMR-001 leading the similar #17 car as the South Korean marque gets prepares for its maiden FIA WEC race on Sunday afternoon

LMGT3

• Charlie Eastwood set the early pace for the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette, as the Northern Irishman peaked on a best lap of 1m42.678s
• That effort was 0.170secs quicker than Finn Gehrsitz, who has moved across from Akkodis ASP Team to Garage 59 for 2026, joining Alexander West and FIA WEC debutant, Benjamin Goethe in the #58 McLaren
• Local ace Mattia Drudi – who lives in nearby San Marino – posted a 1m42.891s effort in the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage to grab third position in the car he again shares with team boss Ian James and Zacharie Robichon
• Fourth on the timesheets was the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari of 2025 championship runners-up Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and François Hériau, with a fastest effort of 1m42.919s set by the Italian 
• Completing the top six in LMGT3 were the second of the Garage 59 McLarens, the #10 car piloted by Tom Fleming, and the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin composed of FIA WEC newcomers Gray Newell, Kobe Pauwels and experienced hand, Jonny Adam, with the young Belgian going quickest of the trio 
• The #92 reigning champion car, now known as The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, finished the session in 12th position 
• A Full Course Yellow came out after 15 minutes of running when #10 Garage 59 McLaren driver Antares Au entered the gravel at the Tamburello chicane and had to be towed out. Darren Leung also had a brief excursion at the Variante Alta chicane as he returns to Team WRT alongside 2024 team-mates, Sean Gelael and Augusto Farfus
• A second FCY was deployed after 55 minutes, when a chicane bollard was displaced at Variante Alta and needed to be cleared

Check out the full FP1 lap times. 

FP2 follows at 15:15 local time (CEST) this afternoon.

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