Prologue – Morning: Ferrari starts with a hat trick

A little over five months after the final laps of the Bahrain Rookie Test, the peloton of WEC The series comes alive again during the Prologue, exceptionally held as a one-day event at Imola following the postponement of the opening round, initially scheduled for Qatar. While the Italian track was still damp at the start of the day, it quickly dried, giving the teams 3.5 hours of running in mixed, cool conditions, which ultimately allowed them to learn quite a bit about the new 2026 Michelin tires in these conditions.

Winner of the Drivers' and Constructors' titles in 2025, Classic Ferrari for sale It seems determined to start 2026 in the same way, judging by the 1-2-3 finish achieved by the 499Ps during this first morning of testing. Antonio Giovinazzi, driving the #51 which he shares with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, set the fastest time in the very last second, placing himself ahead of the #83 of Yifei Ye, Phil Hanson and Robert Kubica, and the #50 of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.

While multiple Full Course Yellow periods (notably for a rabbit on the track) disrupted the session, the red flag was only shown once, after 2 hours and 03 minutes of practice. Marco Sørensen lost control of theAston Martin Valkyrie #009, exiting the first chicane, crashed into the tire wall. While the Danish driver escaped injury, his car sustained significant damage, primarily on the left side, and understandably did not return to the track before the morning's checkered flag.

Norman Nato and Will Stevens brought the No. 12 Cadillac home in fourth place, ahead of the No. 20 BMW of René Rast and Robin Frjins. The main attraction on Tuesday morning was undoubtedly the presence of the two Genesis GMR-001 Hypercars, No. 17 and No. 19. The two cars completed 87 and 67 laps respectively, before finishing in fifteenth and sixteenth places, ahead of the No. 15 BMW, which suffered a small fire in the pit lane and completed only 26 laps.

In the LMGT3 category, Ferrari also takes the lead, with the #21 car of François Hériau, Alessio Rovera and Simon Mann, ahead of the McLaren #58 and the #33 Corvette. The Prologue continues with a second session scheduled for this afternoon, from 14 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The Imola 18 Hours weekend will begin on Friday with two free practice sessions.

WEC 2026 – Prologue (Imola)
The ranking of the morning

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