WEC Imola prologue: Ferrari leads
At the Imola Prologue test Ferrari posted a 1‑2‑3 result in the Hypercar class while Aston Martin suffered a heavy shunt in practice. (motorsport.com) Toyota is marking its 100th hybrid WEC race as the new season opens at Imola after Qatar was postponed. (carracingreporter.com)
Ferrari set the pace at the World Endurance Championship’s Imola Prologue on April 14, locking out the top three Hypercar times before the season opener this weekend. (sports.yahoo.com) Antonio Fuoco led the test with a 1:31.177 in Ferrari’s No. 50 499P, ahead of the No. 51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi and the No. 83 AF Corse entry of Robert Kubica, as Ferrari swept both the morning and afternoon sessions. (sports.yahoo.com) The day was interrupted by three red flags, including a heavy crash for Marco Sørensen in Aston Martin’s No. 009 Valkyrie at Tamburello, while rain and cool conditions left teams chasing setup data more than outright speed. (sports.yahoo.com) Imola now opens the 2026 season because the Qatar 1812km, originally scheduled for March 26-28, was postponed on March 3 over the security situation in the Middle East. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile said the first round would instead be the 6 Hours of Imola on April 17-19. (fia.com) That change turned a one-day pre-season test into the final tune-up for a race weekend that starts Friday at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, with qualifying on April 18 and the six-hour race on April 19. (fiawec.com) Ferrari arrives as defending world champion and with local expectations. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile said 14 manufacturers are entered for Imola, and Ferrari has won the past two editions of the race weekend there in Hypercar milestones: a qualifying top-three sweep in 2024 and victory for the No. 51 crew in 2025. (fia.com) Toyota enters the same weekend marking its 100th World Endurance Championship race with hybrid power, a run that began at Le Mans in 2012. Toyota said those 99 races produced 49 wins, 109 podiums, 42 pole positions and 13 world titles. (newsroom.toyota.eu) Toyota is also trying to rebound from a lean 2025 season. The championship’s official site said the team took only one win last year, then introduced an updated TR010 Hybrid for 2026 with changes to the front end, sidepods, engine cover and rear wing, while rebranding its entry from Toyota Gazoo Racing to Toyota Racing. (fiawec.com) The Hypercar field at Imola numbers 17 cars, including three Ferraris, two Aston Martins, two Toyotas, two Cadillacs, two BMWs, two Alpines, two Peugeots and two Genesis entries. Aston Martin’s Valkyrie is the only naturally aspirated car in that top class, and its crash-shortened Prologue left one of the weekend’s biggest question marks unresolved. (fiawec.com) By Friday morning, the stopwatch that mattered at the Prologue will give way to the one that counts. Ferrari has the early headline at home, but Imola’s narrow 4.9-kilometer layout and six hours of traffic will decide whether test pace survives race day. (fia.com)
