Antonio Fuoco set the standard during the 90-minute second practice session for the Six Hours of Imola, completing a lap of the iconic Italian circuit in a time of 1:30.957 in the #50 Ferrari 499P to outperform the rest of the FIA World Endurance Championship field.
French driver Kevin Estre achieved the second-fastest time (1:31.299) in the #6 Porsche Penske 963, trailing Fuoco’s best effort by 0.342 seconds. Ferrari’s Robert Swartzman secured third place with a time of 1:31.331 in the closing minutes aboard the ‘privateer’ #83 AF Corse 499P, demonstrating the consistent pace of the yellow beast from Maranello after Yifei Ye topped FP1.
Brendon Hartley claimed fourth place in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, posting a lap time of 1:31.729, 0.772 seconds behind Fuoco. Callum Ilott piloted the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche to fifth place with a time of 1:32.300, continuing his impressive performance in the FIA WEC following a podium finish in the Qatar season-opener.
Stoffel Vandoorne, driving for Peugeot, placed sixth with a time of 1:32.496 in the #94 car, just over one and a half seconds off the ultimate pace. Alpine, who scored points in the A424’s debut in Qatar, secured a top-ten position with Hypercar rookie Mick Schumacher clocking a time of 1:32.500 in the #36 entry to claim seventh place.
Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot (1:32.568), James Calado in the #51 Ferrari (1:32.627), and Rene Rast in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 (1:32.655) completed the top-ten in Hypercar.
The top-ten in the Hypercar class were separated by 1.698 seconds, with the #11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C bringing up the rear, 3.119 seconds adrift.
In the LMGT3 category, it was a TF Sport Corvette one-two until the final moments of the session, with Alessio Rovera splitting the two Corvettes. Charlie Eastwood claimed the fastest time with a lap of 1:41.986 in the #81 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, while Rovera’s time of 1:42.173 in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 secured second place in class.
Daniel Juncadella, Eastwood’s TF Sport teammate, achieved the third-fastest time in the #82 Corvette with a lap of 1:42.252. Alex Riberas in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 (1:42.530) and Davide Rigon in the #54 AF Corse 296 (1:42.672) rounded out the top five in LMGT3.
Practice will continue at Imola with the third and final session at 11:10 local time (GMT+2) on Saturday, before the Hyperpole session begins at 14:45 local time.