Hard graft with no reward for the four Aston Martin runners after the 6hrs of Imola

Despite a wet opening session, the preceding sessions including Qualifying were all cool but dry as #007 Heart of Racing Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble pipped their sister #009 car of Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen at the tail end of the Hypercar class to start Sundays six-hour affair from P17 and P18 respectively.

It was better in LMGT3, and Ian James again got through to class Hyperpole within his #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 to claim P3 overall whilst the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR entry of Derek DeBoer (and Eduardo Barrichello and Valentin Hasse-Clot) had to make do with a P15 start position.

With the possibility of rain at some point throughout the race a distinct threat, the race got off to its usual fraught start with plenty of banging of panels and wheels throughout the thirty-six strong grid in those opening laps. Whilst James dropped in those opening laps to P3 in class, DeBoer would hold station in P15 for much of his opening stint including when he had a Corvette being spat out of a gravel trap almost directly into his path!

In Hypercar, whilst both cars could enter one off laps just tenths of a second off the pace of their class leaders, the longevity was that the new chassis was still ‘underpowered’ despite inter-round Balance of performance gains in comparison and with its lack of hybrid system by design, that would affect both cars performances all around the tight circuit despite the best of efforts from the drivers. For them, there would be no marvellous opportunist race result, rather than just the next logical steps along the cars developmental curve – this time by having both cars finish the race as opposed to Qatar’s opener when only the #009 completed that ten-hour debut.

Ninety minutes into the race, the #27 car of James was halfway through his customary double opening stint when he had the #31 BMW LMGT3 all over the back of him. Giving cautious space to the over-eager bronze rated driver aboard that car, the Englishman watched as the BMW passed him for position only by taking his car completely off track for which the Australian aboard the #31, he had to give that one back.

Two laps later, however, the same car tapped the rear of the #27 into the braking area of Rivazza spearing him (fortunately) backwards into the outside retaining wall and abruptly into tyre wall. A few seconds passed before James was seen extricating himself from what was left of his car but importantly, otherwise OK. That obviously left both Mattia Drudi and P3 qualifying pacesetter Zacharie Robichon without a chance to impress.

That would take that car out of the race and bring out the Safety car for the first time, leaving just the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR in class with Barichello now aboard as he chased down the forty-three second deficit to the leading BMW.

Just after the halfway mark, the #31 BMW was again being attracted to an Aston Martin as that car was attempting to line up Barichello aboard the #10 car for position. Again, that manoeuvre didn’t go according to plan and heavy contact was made between them as they made their way through Tamburello. Whilst the #10 car took the damage, the #31 would eventually take a drive through penalty for his efforts – not for the contact which was later seen as a racing incident by Race Control but for its unsafe return to the track immediately in front of three Hypercars.

With the skies darkening slightly, ambient temperature lowering and humidity increasing, eyes were again looking up as the race entered its final ninety minutes. AMR factory driver Hasse-Clot had now taken charge of the #10 car after a mega middle stint from the young Brazilian to race the car to the flag from his then P6 in class.

Too far to go without stopping again for fuel, the Frenchman battled his way up to P3 in class but with the former class leading #46 BMW right behind. Having to pit for that splash of fuel, the #10 returned to the track back down in P10 but eventually finished P11.

Faltering a little on fuel strategy, the team would have to work out where they might have been had it not been for that heavy contact with the #31 car which damaged their defuser and side sills of the car, but all will have to wait until the next round of the Championship from Spa Francorchamps in just under three weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / social media / DPPI WEC