Richard Lietz crossed the finishing line as the LMGT3 class winner for Manthey at the FIA World Endurance Championship‘s 6 Hours of Imola.
The LMGT3 category came down to a close fight to the checkered flag between Manthey’s Richard Lietz and WRT’s Kelvin van der Linde.
WRT’s #46 BMW M4 GT3 Evo initially started on pole position before Valentino Rossi was involved in an incident with Simon Mann’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3.
During the closing stages of the race, the #46 BMW’s gap on the #92 Porsche 911 LMGT3.R grew closer and smaller.
Manthey still took victory owing to Lietz’s defence, and Imola’s narrow circuit width, as just 0.316 seconds separated the two drivers at the finish.
Lietz won after 193 laps with team-mates Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera ahead of the #46 WRT BMW and van der Linde’s team-mates Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy.
Akkodis ASP claimed a personal best third and fourth-placed finish with their #78 and #87 Lexus RC F LMGT3s.
Esteban Masson, replacing an injured Ben Barnicoat, took the final podium spot with his team-mates Arnold Robin and Finn Gerhistz.
Double Toyota LMP1 champion Jose Maria Lopez brought the #87 Lexus to the end with his team-mates Petru Umbrarescu, Clemens Schmid.
AF Corse rounded out the top-five with their #54 Ferrari drivers Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castallacci.
Ian James (#27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 Evo) and Mann were the only two retirements of the race were in the LMGT3 category albeit for contact-related incidents.
WRT controls lead at race start
The race start in LMGT3 was untidy in eyes of race control who penalised six cars for race start procedures.
Nevertheless, Ahmad Al Harthy retained his top spot for the #46 WRT BMW whilst Francois Heriau (#21 AF Corse Ferrari) charged from fourth to second position.
An even more successful driver was Bernardo Sousa who gained five places in his #77 Proton Ford Mustang LMGT3 after just eight minutes, from P13 to P8.
James could not retain his third-placed start although only fell to fifth position, compared to the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo and losing four places by James Cottingham.
One of the early fights was between Hardwick’s #88 and Sousa’s #77 for P7, with the #88 Proton Ford evidently keen for more positions.
Hardwick fended the inside line into Turn 1 before, on the following lap, Sousa made a move stick with a late yet controlled dive inside of Hardwick’s Manthey into T1.
Heriau (running P2), Umbrarescu (P3), Stefano Gattuso of the #88 Proton Ford (P4), #77 Sousa (P7), Yasser Shahin of the #31 WRT (P9) and Darren Leung of the #95 McLaren (P10) – all had five seconds added to their next pit stops due to race start procedures.
Celia Martin triggered the first incident when she dived on the inside line into T1 on #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R driver Ben Keating and spun him around in the gravel trap. A brief full-course-yellow (FCY) allowed track marshals to clear off the gravel spilt onto the track as Martin served a drive-through penalty.
Heriau overtook Al Harthy on the restart but that lead was nullified when the #21 Ferrari served its penalty at the first round of pit stops.
Heart of Racing loses battle with #31 WRT BMW
A battle broke out for sixth place in the second racing hour which had James under pressure from Shahin behind in the #31 WRT BMW.
Shahin attempted a brave but uncoordinated dive up the inside of the #27 Aston Martin into the chicane.
The #31 WRT driver returned the position under the instruction of race control before punting James at Rivazza 1, residing his #27 Aston Martin into the wall and out of the race – thus deploying the first safety car period.
The #31 WRT was later awarded a stop-and-go penalty with Timur Boguslavskiy at the wheel.
Akkodis ASP snuck their way into the lead after the pit stops with Schmid in the #87 although both WRT BMWs ran in P2-P3 formation (#31 ahead of #46).
This soon changed when Rossi took second place from Boguslavskiy after 2-hours and 14-minutes of racing.
Boguslavskiy was caught by Mann and the two fought door-to-door for third place before pitting together.
Their fight continued into the third racing hour also joined by Umbrarescu’s #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus. Rossi led the race and Boguslavskiy emerged in second after the fight, thus making it a 1-2 for WRT for now.
#21 AF Corse Ferrari out after contact with Rossi
Another key incident was for the LMGT3 class lead.
Simon Mann continued his charge towards Rossi, after Boguslavskiy pitted to serve the penalty, and closed down on Rossi’s #46 WRT BMW.
Mann got ahead of the MotoGP legend before Rossi made contact with Mann’s left-hand side – inside line – at T19 (Rivazza 2).
The #21 AF Corse Ferrari spun off into the barrier after the pair made contact, jeopardising the #21 AF Corse team’s strong performance so far in the weekend.Mann recovered but returned to the pit lane garage as the second race retirement.
K. van der Linde, driving during the penultimate racing hour, served the #46 WRT BMW’s stop-and-go penalty for Rossi’s incident responsibility and dropped from first to ninth place.
On the other hand, Akkodis ASP Lexus ran arguably their strongest performance as a team and ran both of their RC Fs in the top-five, with Masson leading following the #46’s penalty.
Vincent Hasse Clot’s #10 Racing Spirit of LeMan Aston Martin ran as high as third having started 15th on the grid – but later finished 11th.
AF Corse’s sole-running #54 Ferrari fought with Davide Rigon at the wheel against Daniel Juncadella’s #33 TF Sport Corvette.
Rigon made a move into T1 but Juncadella returned ahead after they both pitted.
They were joined by the other Corvette, the #81, driven by Charlie Eastwood.
Lietz led with 25-minutes remaining but the lead gap closed down so that K. van der Linde took on Lietz in the tense lead battle – but second place was their best effort.
See here for the full results. Read our Hypercar race report: #51 Ferrari takes hard-fought WEC victory at Imola
