The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) held the second race of the season at the beautiful Imola circuit in Italy this past weekend of April 19-20, 2025, and came away with second place finishes in both the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes.
BMW M Team WRT was strong in qualifying in both classes. In Hypercar, the #15 M Hybrid V8 driven by Kevin Magnussen, Dries Vanthoor, and Raffaele Marciello qualified third behind a pair of Ferrari’s, while the #46 M4 GT3 EVO qualified on the pole in LMGT3. With local hero Valentino Rossi one of the drivers in the #46 car, it was an especially satisfying result for the #46, which Rossi shared with Kelvin van der Linde and Ahmad Al Harthy. “Pole is a fantastic achievement and I’m very happy, especially after the first race which was a bit more difficult,” said Rossi. “The team and BMW did very good job and to do this here at Imola with all the fans is so special. Tomorrow, we hope to fight for the win.”
It was the first LMGT3 pole for Rossi and the first for M Team WRT in the class. The #20 M Hybrid V8 of René Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns qualified thirteenth. The #31 M Team WRT M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Yasser Shahin qualified twelfth.
Ferrari was the class of the Hypercar field at Imola, but the BMWs were the best of the rest. Ferrari ran one-two in the opening three hours of the six-hour race, but the #15 BMW held third. The #20 M Hybrid V8 moved through the field in the opening hours, but it seemed the race may be over for that car when it made contact with a Toyota while Rast was driving, which damaged the rear wing. M Team WRT replaced the whole rear section of the #20 during a pit stop and got the car back out, then made a crucial call by putting in a shorter final stop to jump ahead of other competitors to finish second behind the winning #51 Ferrari 499P. The #15 M Hybrid V8 that had run in third for much of the race had some performance-related issues but finished a solid sixth.
In the LMGT3 class, the #46 M4 GT3 EVO ran in the lead for much of the race, but had a setback when Valentino Rossi tangled with the Ferrari of Simon Mann while battling for position with just under 90 minutes left in the race. The BMW was given a stop-and-go penalty for that contact, and Kelvin van der Linde put in a great drive to bring the car back up through the field and finish in second, just 0.316 seconds behind the winning #92 Porsche. “I have mixed feelings because a podium is a good result, but we could have won,” said Rossi. “It’s very unfortunate because the team did a fantastic job, the car was very fast, and we managed the tires well. Ahmad and especially Kelvin at the end drove brilliantly. Kelvin fought until the end and brought the podium home. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and hit the Ferrari in front of me during an overtaking attempt. The subsequent penalty cost us the win. I am sorry for that.”
The #31 M4 GT3 EVO was involved in an accident with the Heart of Racing Aston Martin that was deemed the BMW drivers’ fault and resulted in a penalty, dropping them down to twelfth at the end.
The next race for the FIA WEC is a six-hour race at the Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium on May 8th-10th. “A podium finish in both classes and a generally strong performance of our cars,” said Head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Ross after Imola. “This gives us confidence for the upcoming races, where we will try to secure the first win of the year.”
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW]
