The second FIA WEC race was won on home soil by Ferrari #51, joined on the podium by BMW #20 and Alpine #36.
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| Photo by Shameem Fahath |
Ferrari may have won, but it had to work hard for it. The race was interrupted by two safety cars — the first came out after an Aston Martin from the Heart of Racing team crashed in the Rivazza section. The second was caused by the #21 Ferrari LMGT3, which was sent into the wall by BMW #46. There were also two full-course yellows, which meant that the Hypercar class cars couldn’t build a significant gap, so the battle for victory remained undecided until the final minutes.
Despite that, Alessandro Pier Guidi brought his Ferrari 499P home in first place in front of 65,000 Italian fans. Joining him on the top step of the podium with his teammates James Calado and former Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi. For the #51 crew, this marked their first WEC win since Le Mans 2023.
Photo by WEC
Second place went to René Rast, Robin Frijns, and Sheldon Van Der Linde in their #20 BMW — the second podium for BMW, the first being in Fuji, Japan. It was also a second podium finish for the Alpine #36 crew of Mick Schumacher, Frédéric Makowiecki, and Jules Gounon.
In the LMGT3 category, victory went to the #92 Porsche with the lineup of Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz, and Ryan Hardwick. Right behind them was the #46 BMW, which at one point looked set for a dominant win — until they had to serve a stop-and-go penalty after Valentino Rossi, behind the wheel, took out the #21 Ferrari. Rounding out the podium was the #78 Lexus in third place.
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| Photo by AG Photo |
The WEC continues on May 10th at Spa, followed by the 24 Hours of Le Mans.