TOYOTA GAZOO Racing faced mixed conditions in Italy during the first practice sessions for the 6 Hours of Imola, the second round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.
At the scene of its first victory of last year’s World Championship-winning campaign, morning rain created changing track conditions in first practice before a sunny second session allowed preparations to accelerate for a weekend which can kick start the team’s challenge for both titles this season.
The #7 GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries were eighth fastest after a productive day, while Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 GR010 HYBRID were 14th.
“We had a productive day all round and I think all the drivers on car #8 have been quite happy with our car,” commented Hartley. “We made a little set-up change to find some more stability and we are still trying to find the right compromises. So far, it’s gone pretty smoothly so I hope that will continue tomorrow and we can make more progress.”
The track was declared wet for the start of first practice on a cool, damp morning, so in the early stages race engineers and drivers frequently evaluated, via radio, how to adapt to the drying surface. After around 15 minutes they decided to change from wet to slick tyres. Experience of track evolution in changing weather could be critical later in the weekend, so drivers discussed intensively together, and with the race engineers, to share their experiences of these conditions.
Between the two sessions, drivers and engineers analysed car performance in debriefs to search for improvements before second practice. Once the plan of action was decided, the mechanics had to work efficiently in the limited time available to make changes before the session began.
On a dry track, second practice saw more focus on tyre performance and durability, to enable drivers to feel how the different tyre compounds warm up and evolve. Soft and medium compounds are available this week at Imola, which is different to the medium and hard Michelin tyres offered a year ago. Both cars tried out each compound during a dry session, after which the drivers and crews – as they did on Thursday and after first practice – fine-tuned pit stop procedures.
The on-track team, including all drivers, will now combine their experience and knowledge to analyse information gathered during the two practice sessions to optimise the GR010 HYBRIDs in time for third practice on Saturday morning. That is the final opportunity to test the cars before qualifying, which starts at 3.10pm CEST for the 18-strong Hypercar grid. The race begins at 1pm on Sunday.
6 Hours of Imola Free Practice 1
1st #83 AF Corse (Kubica/Ye/Hanson) 1min32.065secs 45 laps
2nd #50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) +0.236secs 43 laps
3rd #12 Cadillac Team JOTA (Lynn/Nato/Stevens) +0.266secs 40 laps
4th #51 Ferrari AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) +0.542secs 44 laps
5th #38 Cadillac Team JOTA (Bamber/Bourdais/Button) +0.740secs 42 laps
6th #36 Alpine Endurance Team (Gounon/Makowiecki/Schumacher)+0.785secs 43 laps
7th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.800secs 50 laps
9th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1.066secs 51 laps
6 Hours of Imola Free Practice 2
1st #51 Ferrari AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) 1min 31.040secs 51 laps
2nd #15 BMW M Team WRT (Vanthoor/Marciello/Magnussen) +0.000secs 53 laps
3rd #36 Alpine Endurance Team (Gounon/Makowiecki/Schumacher)+0.243secs 44 laps
4th #50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) +0.354secs 52 laps
5th #20 BMW M Team WRT (Rast/Frijns/Van der Linde) +0.478secs 53 laps
6th #38 Cadillac Team JOTA (Bamber/Bourdais/Button) +0.483secs 49 laps
8th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.720secs 51 laps
14th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1.226secs 40 laps
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