The World Champions visit Imola for the first time lying second in the Manufacturers’ World Championship, following a united team effort to achieve a strong result from the opening round in Qatar despite difficult circumstances.

A return to the podium is the target in Italy, but the two practice sessions on Friday showed the competition at the front of the 19-car Hypercar field will be intense.

World Champions Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, in the #8 GR010 HYBRID, set the fourth fastest time of the day, 1min 31.729secs, 0.772secs behind the pace-setting #50 Ferrari. The #7 GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, who finished fifth in Qatar, were 12th.

Following a damp start to preparations on Thursday, the opening day of track action was dry with warmer air temperatures of 16°C when Nyck and Sébastien turned the GR010 HYBRID’s first laps at Imola in the opening moments of first practice.

All six drivers had visited the driving simulator at the team’s base in Cologne to make a head start on preparations and set-up direction. But with track conditions varying day by day, first practice provided an opportunity to get first-hand experience of Imola.

The team and drivers used the 90 minutes to become familiar with the specifics of the lay-out and track surface, monitoring the performance and degradation of the Michelin tyres, as well as acquiring useful data to improve mechanical and aerodynamic settings.

Nyck set the quickest lap of the session for the #7, going ninth overall, while Sébastien, who races in WEC for the 80th time this weekend, recorded the #8 car’s best effort to end first practice in 10th. A smooth session, interrupted only briefly by a red flag and a full course yellow, laid the foundations for second practice, when further set-up adjustments and tyre analysis were on the agenda.

Kamui and Brendon were at the wheel to start that session and Brendon set his car’s fastest lap of the day in his first stint. Mike recorded the best time for the #7 midway through a session which ran without significant interruption.

Following a productive first experience of Imola with the GR010 HYBRID, the engineers and drivers will analyse the data and focus on enhancing set-ups and extracting maximum performance from the car and tyres prior to qualifying, which takes place at 3.25pm CEST on Saturday. The race begins on Sunday at 1pm.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7):

“Obviously this was our first time driving the GR010 HYBRID at this track so we are still in a learning process. But I feel pretty good after the first day in terms of how the car felt. I last drove here almost twenty years ago which makes me feel a bit old, but it’s as enjoyable as I remember. It was fun to drive, especially with so many fans already here. Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, it’s hard to say what the others are doing so we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully we can fight at the front.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7):

“We have made quite good progress on day one in terms of learning the track, because it’s a new one for most of the drivers in terms of endurance racing. We looked reasonable with qualifying simulations and long runs. There are still some improvements we can make to the car balance to hopefully extract some more lap time. We will keep learning and improving and let’s see what Saturday brings.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):

“It has been a fairly hectic day for us with a lot of laps, and a lot to learn. Imola is quite a particular circuit so we were all learning and getting up to speed. It’s hard to have a clear picture of everyone’s pace at the moment, especially because traffic is quite challenging here. The weather might be a bit different for qualifying so it could be a different story again. I am looking forward to it.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):

“It’s been a positive day in good weather. I didn’t really know the track so I am happy I could do quite a few laps. When we look at the data, we have some interesting possibilities to improve the car balance, maybe more than normal because we have never been here before. I feel like we are in a little better shape than in Qatar but tomorrow the weather could be different, so we’ll see.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):

“We had a drama-free day and we were just discovering the track because it’s a long time since most of us drove here. It was so nice to drive the GR010 HYBRID around here, particularly after the first race in Qatar which is so different. It was fun to have no run-off, a bumpy surface and kerbs you can use; it was such a pleasure to drive. Ferrari looked incredibly quick but we are doing everything we can to close the gap and it’s been productive.”

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8):

“This track is quite unique and we learned a lot on this first day. It has not been easy but the car felt much better in second practice compared to the first session. Now we will work hard together with the engineers to find some improvements and get ready for tomorrow, which might be more challenging with the weather. I am focusing on the race performance and I think we did some productive work today. I hope we can extract even more from the car over the rest of the weekend.”