It was a special Saturday in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Italian one-lap specialist Antonio Fuoco as he put the #50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar on pole for tomorrow’s Six Hours of Imola in front of the adoring Tifosi, who he credited with giving him “an extra boost” during Hyperpole.
Ferrari fans were served a treat during Saturday’s qualifying session as Fuoco paced the field by 0.419 with a time of 1:29.466.
To make things even more jubilant for the Italian audience at Imola, Ferraris posted up second and third as well, courtesy of Robert Shwartzman in the #83 AF Corse 499P and Alessandro Pier Gudi in the #51 Ferrari.
A one-two-three qualifying finish is all the Maranello-marque could ask for at what is effectively its home circuit and Fuoco admitted that topping Free Practice Three on Saturday morning made him confident heading into the afternoon.
“The feeling was already good from this morning in the Free Practice, so I just tried to keep the concentration high, trying to put everything together,” Fucoco said.
“It’s always tricky when you go on qualifying with the traffic and everything else, but I think the car today was really good, and I just put a really good lap together.”
Fuoco labelled his pole lap as “special” but as has been the case for practically half a century it means more to succeed for Ferrari, a motorsport institution, especially in front of the Italian Tifosi.
Ferrari’s pole-winner admitted that topping the order in front of a home crowd gave him extra motivation.
“In front of our people, in our home race, I got an extra boost, and I just pushed 100% from the beginning until the end of the qualifying,” said the Italian.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Imola serves an intriguing prospect.
The Emilia Romagna-based circuit is far different compared to the Qatar venue that served as host for the FIA WEC season-opener in March.
Imola is narrow, undulating with a propensity for changeable weather, but Fuoco’s mind is on the first factor and how that will affect navigating traffic during the six-hour race.
“We saw already in Free Practice that the traffic was quite tricky, and the race is quite long, so I just need to be calm from the beginning,” he said.
“I think we start in a good position with all our three cars, so we try to manage and try to do our best.
“We also know that the competitors behind look quite good on the race pace, so it’s going to be not that easy.
“We try to do our best and see at the end.
“I think, as I said before, the team did an amazing job.
“Since the preparation at home, we worked really hard for this weekend.
“We tried to put everything in a good place, and I think it was working quite well since the morning.”
