- Tuesday marked the annual Prologue for the FIA World Endurance Championship at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy. This test session was originally scheduled for Qatar, but the session was moved to Imola after the Qatar race weekend was postponed to October.
In the opening session,
Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Giovinazzi was fastest overall with a lap at 119.887 mph in his Ferrari 499P. The lap was .097 seconds faster than Robert Kubica in the privateer AF Corse Ferrari. Nicklas Nielsen made it a Ferrari one-two-three at the top of the chart. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA's Norman Nato and BMW M Team WRT's Rene Rast was fifth.
The best lap for the new Genesis
GMR-001 was set by Pipo Derani. He was 15th overall, 2.382 seconds back.
The Heart of Racing ran into serious troubles when Marco Sorensen spun at Tamburello and crashed his Valkyrie. He walked away from the crash, but the car was significantly damaged and missed the rest of the day. A fresh chassis will be on hand for the race this weekend.
In LMGT3, Vista AF Corse's Alessio Rovera was fastest in his Ferrari 296 GT3 with a lap at 106.731 mph. The lap was .038 seconds faster than the McLaren of Garage 59's Finn Gehrsitz. The Corvette of TF Sport's Nicky Catsburg was third, followed by Team WRT's BMW for Dan Harper. Iron Lynx's Maxime Martin was fifth.
In the afternoon session, Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco set the fastest lap of the Prologue at 120.425 mph to lead the pack. He was .126 seconds faster than Kubica. Giovinazzi was third, then BMW M Team WRT's Robin Frijns and Alpine's Jules Gounon.
In LMGT3, The Heart of Racing's Mattia Drudi was fastest in his Aston Martin with a lap at
106.915 mph. He was .051 seconds faster than Rovera's Ferrari. Garage 59's Thomas Fleming was third in his McLaren, then Racing Team Turkey by TF's Charlie Eastwood. TF Sport's Jonny Edgar was fifth.
