Yifei Ye set the fastest time in free practice 1 for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s second round of 2024, the 6 Hours of Imola.
The Ferrari driver, in the customer AF Corse-run #83 Ferrari 499P, set a time of a 1:31.347 to go quickest, over half a second ahead of his nearest rival, Antonio Fuoco in the factory #50 Ferrari.
Mikkel Jensen, in the #93 Peugeot 9X8, was third quickest, as Peugeot begin to get to grips with the new 9X8 at Imola. Jensen, though, was over half a second away from Fuoco, in a dominant session for the Ferraris.
There was a brief red flag in the session, as Jensen’s Peugeot teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, came to a stop just after turn 4, Tamburello. The Frenchman got the car going again but race control had already called a red flag, which was withdrawn a few minutes later as Vergne rolled back to the pits.
Fourth was Lamborghini’s Mirko Bortolotti, while Fuoco’s Ferrari stable mate Alessandro Pier Guidi was fifth. Sixth was Harry Tincknell in the customer #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963, while Matt Campbell was seventh in the #5 Porsche. Kevin Estre was next up in the sister #6 Porsche, while the two Toyotas, led by Nyck de Vries in the #7, were ninth and 10th, with #8 Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi rounding out the top 10.
In LMGT3, Daniel Juncadella went quickest in the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R, setting a 1:42.113. Teammate Charlie Eastwood was next up, making it a Corvette 1-2, in the #81, but was more than sixth tenths off his Spanish teammate.
Third fastest was Davide Rigon, driving the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, while Maxime Martin was fourth in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Rounding out the top 5 was Alessio Rovera in the sister #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
FP2 begins 5:15pm local time.
