"It was a very intense session": Giovinazzi takes pole for Ferrari in the last second

The reigning world champions, with Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado at the wheel, Classic Ferrari for sale 499P #51 will start the 2026 season from pole position at the Imola circuit this Sunday. While this outcome was somewhat expected given the Prologue and the first free practice sessions this weekend, it was in the very last moments of the Hyperpole that the former driver of Formula 1 managed to achieve the best time, a mere hundredth of a second ahead of the Toyota No. 8, who will also start on the front line.

Speaking to our microphone after the session, Antonio Giovinazzi testified to its intense nature, with a car a little more delicate to drive than at the start of the weekend, and the need to perform at the very end of the stint, with more worn tires, following some errors in the first laps, supposedly the fastest.

“It was a very intense session. The car was tricky to drive, which is why my last lap came right at the end of the session, because I made a lot of mistakes before that. I couldn't put the whole lap together before then. It was a good lap, but not perfect. It's good to have put the car on pole position by the skin of my teeth, and for Sunday I think it will be a very difficult race.”

Having secured pole position once again at Imola (where the #51 car also took the victory), Giovinazzi nevertheless expects to face increased competition during the race, embodied by Toyota, but also by Peugeot , which places Malthe Jakobsen's 9X8 No. 94, Loïc duval et Theo Pourchaire in the second row, behind the Ferrari No. 50.

“We know Toyota will be there, and Peugeot too. At Imola, track position is crucial, so we’ll try to take advantage of that, while also keeping an eye on whether it’s going to rain or not. We’ll have to make the right decisions at the right time. I expect the race to be very close, just like qualifying! Everyone will have to be pushing the limits every lap, and that’s difficult to do, especially with the GT cars coming into play. We’ll see where we stand in the first few hours of the race, and then from the halfway point onwards, we’ll try to push a bit harder and stay at the front.”

From the garage, Alessandro Pier Guidi watched, amazed by his teammate's performance: “Giovi did an incredible job. We were looking at the times and we didn’t know if he was going to be able to put them all together, but he managed it on the last lap. The tires were overheating, I don’t know how he did it! It was a superb lap, and it puts us in a much better position for Sunday, especially at Imola. It’s crazy to see all the fans screaming when Giovi took pole position.”

On Sunday from 13pm, Ferrari will launch their assault on a new world title, and this requires a strong performance in front of the Tifosi, at home.

Comments by Antonio Giovinazzi collected by Valentin Glo in Imola (Italy)

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