Imola LMGT3 winners

Ferrari wins at Imola!

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Hypercar class

The World Endurance Championship, created in 1953 and which has had several names, notably the World Sportscar Championship, disappeared in 1992, before being reborn in 2012 under the name of World Endurance Championship (abbreviated as WEC). The prototype category was initially reserved for cars meeting the LMP1 regulations, but as these demanded increasingly substantial budgets, Audi and Porsche left the series amid Dieselgate, with only Toyota remaining loyal. Since 2021, a new regulation, called Hypercar, has been in force and was designed to reduce costs and attract new manufacturers.

Valentino Rossi, as much acclaimed in Italy as Ferrari, made the mistake of attempting an over-optimistic pass on the #21 Ferrari, causing the latter to retire. A stop-and-go penalty followed. Without this, the #46 would have undoubtedly won.

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

The Endurance category has always seen a mix between prototypes and Grand Touring cars. This particularity still exists today. It allows for full starting grids, for some manufacturers to participate based on their standard GT car without having to build a more expensive prototype, and for wealthy gentleman drivers to take part in legendary events such as Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring or the WEC. It should be noted that in the GT category of the WEC, each crew can only have one professional driver, the other two having amateur status. It is often the latter who provide the financing for the car.