Toyota won the Imola opener by leaving the tyres alone

Imola was never meant to open the season. The postponement of the Qatar 1812km moved the first race of the year onto a 4.9km circuit with 35 cars, 17 of them Hypercars, and took the official Prologue to Italy with it. Teams began the year somewhere that traffic, kerbs and tyre warm-up matter more than space does. Our circuit file on Imola covers the corners that decided it.

Ferrari picked up where it had left off in 2025. It locked out the top three in both Prologue sessions, Antonio Fuoco setting a 1:31.177 in the #50. The same car headed FP3 on a 1:30.370. Then, in Hyperpole, Antonio Giovinazzi crossed the line last and took pole with a 1:30.127, denying Ryō Hirakawa by 0.011s. The top four were covered by 0.073s, the top ten by 0.674s.

James Calado held the lead into the first corner while Miguel Molina passed the #8 Toyota, putting Ferrari 1-2. Toyota took second back in the opening stop cycle, then made the call that decided the afternoon. At the following stop the #8 kept its tyres, and Hirakawa rejoined ahead of the #51. A neutralisation came shortly afterwards, which let Toyota fit fresh rubber without giving the position back.

The #7 did the rest. Kamui Kobayashi emerged ahead of Giovinazzi and held him there long enough for Sébastien Buemi to build a margin Ferrari never got back. Giovinazzi cleared the #7 at the final stops. By then the race had gone.

Penalties removed the alternatives. The #50 took a drive-through for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow and dropped to sixth. The #12 Cadillac, which had led briefly on an offset strategy, collected the same penalty for the same offence. The #20 BMW took one for a Virtual Safety Car infringement and still recovered to fifth with Robin Frijns and René Rast.

Light rain and strong winds arrived in the closing stages. Buemi brought the #8 through the shower with the lead intact.

The verdict. Ferrari had the quickest package of the weekend and lost on three things: traction out of the slow corners, tyre life across a full stint, and track position. That is not misfortune. Toyota understood its own weaknesses and built a race around them, and Ferrari ran the race it had qualified for. The wet finish helped the car already in front. It did not create the margin, which was there beforehand.

The surrounding numbers are a marketing department's weekend. The #8 won on the revised TR010 Hybrid's race debut, in Toyota's 100th WEC race with hybrid power, and it was the marque's 50th win in the championship. Alpine took the #35 to fourth, the A424 programme's strongest season opening. Genesis brought both GMR-001s to the flag on its Hypercar debut, fifteenth and seventeenth in class. Attendance across the weekend was 92,175, which Toyota reports as a record for a WEC weekend at Imola.

Qualifying covered the top four in 0.073s. At the flag, the gap between the first two was 13.352s.

Race highlights