Alpine moves to the top in second Imola 6H practice

Ferrari's control of the top three positions on the timing screens this week in Imola came to an end this afternoon in the second practice session of the FIA WEC's opening event. Charles Milesi set the benchmark time, the quickest of the week so far, in the No. 35 Alpine.

It was the first time ever that an A424 had set the fastest time in a practice session, and it came amid a qualifying sim on soft tires for the Frenchman, in which his best tour was a 1m30.898s. It's the only sub-1m31s lap recorded so far.

Second went to the No. 7 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid of Nyck de Vries, who ended up 0.114s off Milesi after trading the top spot with him early on. The best of the Ferrari 499Ps slotted in third, following a 1m31.036s from Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50. The sister No. 51 and satellite No. 83 entries finished the day fourth and seventh, respectively.

The No. 94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen was fifth, with the No. 20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 – in which Robin Frijns had a half-spin at Acque Minerale early on – sixth.

In all, 14 Hypercars were covered by less than one second, with Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001’s again at the bottom, but only 1.389 and 1.932 seconds off the pace respectively.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s V-Series.Rs led the mileage counts, with all 17 Hypercars completing at least 30 laps.

In LMGT3, debutant Kobe Pauwels led the way in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage, after setting a 1m42.081s in the closing minutes. The Belgian, who is standing in for Dudu Barrichello this weekend, displaced longtime session, and fellow rookie, Hadrien David, in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus by 0.07s.

Heart of Racing’s Zacharie Robichon was third fastest, ahead of the No. 87 Lexus in fourth. TF Sport’s pair of Corvette Z06 LMGT3.Rs completed the top six, with the No. 33 entry ahead of the Racing Team Turkey-branded No. 34 car, which spent over half the session in its garage with an issue.

Free Practice 2 ran without any major incidents throughout the 90-minute run, which took place in hot, sunny conditions. Free Practice 3 is set to get underway Saturday morning at 10:30am before qualifying later in the day.

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