New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley has come away from the 6 Hours of Imola with a solid haul of points, while Earl Bamber and the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R of Hertz Team JOTA endured a frustrating and bruising run in the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Hartley and his Toyota teammates Sébastien Buemi and Ryō Hirakawa crossed the line fifth in the #8 GR010 Hybrid after a challenging day that included a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement. Hartley started from fourth and traded places early with the sister #7 Toyota, running solidly in the top five throughout his stint.
“It was a big fight today,” Hartley said. “I had a clean first two stints and was running fourth, trying to put pressure on the BMW ahead. We had a good fight but unfortunately, we took a penalty for a full course yellow infringement.
Luckily it didn’t cost us much because the team had an amazing strategy after the final safety car to give us clean air and Séb had a great fight with the #50. Finishing fifth was decent damage limitation on a weekend when we didn’t have the pace.”
The race was won by the pole-sitting #51 Ferrari 499P of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, sending the Italian crowd into raptures as they held off BMW and Alpine in the final hour. It was a hard-fought home win for the Maranello marque, adding to the #50 car’s season-opening victory in Qatar.
While Hartley banked another solid result for Toyota’s title defence, it was a race to forget for fellow Kiwi Earl Bamber, who endured a chaotic stint behind the wheel.
Bamber started the race in the #38 Cadillac for Hertz Team JOTA but quickly became embroiled in midfield drama. He was spun around in the first hour after contact from behind, dropping the car further back.
Later in his stint, while battling for position, Bamber misjudged a move on the No. 93 Peugeot and sent it into a spin — an incident that earned the team a drive-through penalty.
From there, the day unravelled. Multiple delays, traffic struggles, and a lack of outright pace left the #38 crew well adrift of the leaders. Bamber, along with teammates Sébastien Bourdais and Jenson Button, eventually brought the car home in 16th, without a realistic shot at points.
“Pretty tough day,” Bamber admitted after the race. “We were hoping for a lot more speed in the car. The Peugeot turning down on us in the end didn’t impact our race too much. We lost nearly another two laps, so tough day for us and hopefully we can regroup at Spa where we had a strong car last year.”
After two rounds, Hartley and his #8 Toyota crew sit sixth in the Hypercar Drivers’ Championship with 25 points, while Bamber’s #38 Cadillac trio remains unclassified with zero points.
The WEC now heads to Spa-Francorchamps in early May for the final round before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Both Kiwi drivers will be aiming to rebound in the Belgian Ardennes.
2025 6 Hours of Imola Results:
| Pos | No. | Drivers | Car |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi | Ferrari 499P |
| 2 | 20 | Rene Rast Robin Frijns Sheldon Van Der Linde | BMW M Hybrid V8 |
| 3 | 36 | Jules Gounon Frederic Makowiecki Mick Schumacher | Alpine A424 |
| 4 | 83 | Robert Kubica Ye Yifei Philip Hanson | Ferrari 499P |
| 5 | 8 | Sebastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa | Toyota GR010 – Hybrid |
| 6 | 15 | Dries Vanthoor Raffaele Marciello Kevin Magnussen | BMW M Hybrid V8 |
| 7 | 7 | Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Nyck de Vries | Toyota GR010 – Hybrid |
| 8 | 6 | Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor Matthew Campbell | Porsche 963 |
| 9 | 93 | Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne | Peugeot 9X8 |
| 10 | 12 | Alex Lynn Norman Nato Will Stevens | Cadillac V-Series.R |
| 11 | 5 | Julien Andlauer Michael Christensen Mathieu Jaminet | Porsche 963 |
| 12 | 94 | Loic Duval Malthe Jakobsen Stoffel Vandoorne | Peugeot 9X8 |
| 13 | 35 | Paul Loup Chatin Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | Alpine A424 |
| 14 | 99 | Neel Jani Nicolas Pino Nicolas Varrone | Porsche 963 |
| 15 | 50 | Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen | Ferrari 499P |
| 16 | 38 | Earl Bamber Sebastien Bourdais Jenson Button | Cadillac V-Series.R |
| 17 | 009 | Alex Riberas Marco Sorensen | Aston Martin Valkyrie |
| 18 | 007 | Harry Tincknell Tom Gamble | Aston Martin Valkyrie |
| 19 | 92 | Ryan Hardwick Riccardo Pera Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| 20 | 46 | Ahmad Al Harthy Valentino Rossi Kelvin van der Linde | BMW M4 GT3 |
| 21 | 78 | Arnold Robin Finn Gehrsitz Esteban Masson | Lexus RC F GT3 |
| 22 | 87 | Razvan Umbrarescu Clemens Schmid Jose Maria Lopez | Lexus RC F GT3 |
| 23 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon | Ferrari 296 GT3 |
| 24 | 81 | Tom van Rompuy Rui Andrade Charlie Eastwood | Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R |
| 25 | 33 | Ben Keating Jonny Edgar Daniel Juncadella | Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R |
| 26 | 85 | Celia Martin Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| 27 | 95 | Darren Leung Sean Gelael Marino Sato | McLaren 720S GT3 Evo |
| 28 | 77 | Bernardo Sousa Ben Tuck Ben Barker | Ford Mustang GT3 |
| 29 | 10 | Derek DeBoer Dudu Barrichello Valentin Hasse-Clot | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 |
| 30 | 31 | Yasser Shahin Timur Boguslavskiy Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 GT3 |
| 31 | 61 | Christian Ried Lin Hodenius Maxime Martin | Mercedes AMG GT3 |
| 32 | 59 | James Cottingham Sebastien Baud Gregoire Saucy | McLaren 720S GT3 Evo |
| 33 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Matteo Cairoli | Mercedes AMG GT3 |
| 34 | 88 | Stefano Gattuso Giammarco Levorato Dennis Olsen | Ford Mustang GT3 |
| 21 | Francois Heriau Simon Mann Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 296 GT3 | |
| 27 | Ian James Zacharie Robichon Mattia Drudi | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 |
Header Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
