Antonio Fuoco set two laps good enough for pole position aboard the #50 factory 499P Le Mans Hypercar at the head of a block-out by the three Ferraris in the 10-minute Hyperpole session. The Italian jumped to the top of the times with a 1m29.735s before improving to a 1m29.466s right at the end.
“I felt really good inside the car, really confident,” said Fuoco. “The first lap was already quite a good one, but I found some small details on the second run.”
Robert Shwartzman found seventh tenths aboard the customer AF Corse-run entry on his final lap to claim second position between the two factory cars. His 1m29.885s gave him a margin of less than a tenth ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 factory entry, which ended up on 1m29.953s.
Best of the rest behind the Ferraris was Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh that triumphed first time out in the WEC this year in Qatar in March. The Frenchman posted a best lap of 1m30.101s, which left him six tenths off the pole.
Matt Campbell followed him in fifth position despite an off at Tamburello at the start of the session in the second of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries. The Australian ended up nearly three tenths behind his team-mate on a 1m30.385s.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Kamui Kobayashi took sixth for Toyota in the best of the Japanese manufacturer’s GR010 HYBRID LMHs on a 1m30.410s, while Rene Rast jumped to seventh in the only WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh to make it through to the Hyperpole session for the fastest 10 cars in first qualifying.
The German just pipped Brendon Hartley in the second of the Toyotas with a 1m30.600s. Hartley set his only representative lap time after a spin at Tosa.
Callum Illot and Julien Andlauer rounded out the top 10 in their respective Jota and Proton Competition privateer Porsches.
Only four manufacturers made it through the 12-minute first round of qualifying.
#38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Jenson Button, Philip Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Behind the second Jota car in 11th place with Phil Hanson at the wheel came the solo Cadillac V-Series.R. Alex Lynn improved his time after a red flag stoppage with just under two minutes left on the clock, but it wasn’t enough to improve his position.
The two new, 2024-spec Peugeot 9X8 LMHs ended up 14th and 15th in the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean Eric-Vergne. They were just a tenth apart, but nearly a second and a half off the pace.
Lamborghini’s Iron Lynx-run SC63 LMDh took 16th position in Mirko Bortolotti’s hands ahead of the pair of Alpine A424 LMDhs qualified by Nicolas Lapierre and Paul-Loup Chatin.
Belarusian Aliaksandr Malykhin claimed the LMGT3 pole position aboard the Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3-R.
The class winner at the Qatar season-opener in March together with Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm outpaced Heart of Racing Aston Martin driver Ian James by nearly seven tenths of a second with a 1m42.365s.
A 1m43.058s from James in the Aston Vantage GT3 was enough to give him a margin of four hundredths over Ahmad Al Harthy in the best of the WRT BMW M4 GT3s.
#31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Darren Leung, Sean Gelael, Augusto Farfus
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The Omani driver was in turn just six thousandths ahead of WRT team-mate Darren Leung in fourth with a 1m43.105s.
Sarah Bovy took fifth position in the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan EVO2 in front of the Ford Mustang GT3 driven by Giorgio Roda.
Seven of the nine manufacturers represented in LMGT3 made it through the first round of qualifying into the Hyperpole session.
Among the casualties was the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette squad that topped two of the trio of free practice sessions and took pole at Qatar.
The Imola 6 Hours, round two of the 2024 WEC, starts at 13:00 on Sunday.