The headlines from FP2 at Imola

The second free practice session in preparation for Sunday’s curtain-raising contest saw lap times tumble around the challenging 4.909km Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Hypercar

• The pace was set early on in the 90-minute session by Charles Milesi aboard the #35 Alpine A424 that the 2025 Fuji winner pilots alongside Ferdinand Habsburg and new signing António Félix da Costa, the Frenchman stopping the clocks with a time of a 1m31.122s 
• That was 0.6secs faster than Robert Kubica’s FP1-topping time and indicates that Alpine could be a factor in the battle at the front of the field this weekend after securing a podium at Imola 12 months ago
• Nyck de Vries posted the second-best time in the #7 TOYOTA RACING TR010 Hybrid Hypercar, which continues to show strong initial promise after a significant aerodynamic update over the winter; the Dutch ace peaked on a lap of 1m31.012s in the car he shares with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway 
• Reigning world champion and home favourite Ferrari wound up third and fourth in the pecking-order, with the two factory cars lapping within 0.061secs seconds of each other, the #50 499P narrowly pipping the sister #51 entry 
• Team Peugeot TotalEnergies continued its strong all-round form as the #94 9X8 – in which young guns Théo Pourchaire and Malthe Jakobsen combine with the experienced Loïc Duval – concluded the session in fifth position
• BMW M Team WRT showed improved speed as the #20 entry driven by the duo of René Rast and Robin Frijns this weekend slotted into sixth 
• The morning pace-setting #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P sat seventh ahead of the first of the Aston Martin Valkyries – the #007 entry, piloted by Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble
• Completing the top ten in FP2 were the #36 Alpine and the #8 Toyota, while Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA could manage no better than 11th and 14th
• Incredibly, just 0.984s covered the top 14 in the immensely competitive Hypercar category, while Genesis Magma Racing’s GMR-001 prototype got to within just 1.4secs of the outright benchmark in the hands of two-time world champion, André Lotterer on the South Korean manufacturer’s motorsport debut

LMGT3

• FIA WEC debutant Kobe Pauwels set a sensational 1m42.081s lap in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage to lead a close LMGT3 category in FP2 
• The Belgian youngster’s time was just 0.070secs ahead of the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus with fellow newcomer Hadrien David behind the wheel; the Frenchman showed strong early promise with a peak lap of 1m42.151s to lead for the majority of the session until Pauwels supplanted him at the summit of the standings
• David, the 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup champion, set a time that was faster than the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin driven by Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon 
• Completing the symmetry, the second Akkodis Lexus placed fourth as 2026 Interlagos winners José María López, Petru Umbrărescu and Clemens Schmid combined to put the Jérôme Policand-helmed squad in a good set-up position for tomorrow’s qualifying 
• TF Sport continues to look strong with the #33 Corvette of Jonny Edgar, Nicky Catsburg and Ben Keating stand-in Blake McDonald all contributing to a stable car, and Edgar setting a 1m42.426s lap for fifth best time
• A suspected water pressure issue for the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF sister Corvette confined the FP1-topping car to the pits for half of the session, but once the British outfit had rectified the problem, Peter Dempsey and Salih Yoluç posted a succession of swift times with the Turk eventually setting the sixth-fastest lap of 1m42.527s 
• Seventh in LMGT3 was the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari, as Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and François Hériau embark upon their quest to go one better than in 2025 and hunt for the title off the back of a strong runner-up campaign

Check out the full FP2 lap times. 

Next up is FP3 follows at 10:30 local time (CEST) tomorrow morning (18 April).

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