ELMS: Lilou Wadoux brings Richard Mille Ferrari close to podium contention before late stop at Imola
- RACERS
- 3 hours ago
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Despite an early penalty that forced the team to recover from outside the top ten in class, Lilou Wadoux produced an outstanding drive at the 4 Hours of Imola by bringing the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari from ninth to third before a late pit stop dropped the team to eighth at the finish.
Fresh from two strong performances in two of the most important endurance events of the year, Lilou Wadoux returned to the European Le Mans Series for the third round of the 2026 season at Imola. After securing an excellent eighth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - her personal best in class at the French classic - and following it with an outstanding fifth overall at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, the Ferrari factory driver arrived in Italy aiming to keep momentum.
Wadoux reunited with Custodio Toledo and Riccardo Agostini aboard the #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 for the 4 Hours of Imola. The vice-champion team from the 2025 ELMS season had endured a frustrating start to the year: Wadoux had missed the Barcelona opener due to a clashing commitment before joining the campaign at Paul Ricard, where the trio's race ended prematurely after an early incident involving one of her teammates.
Richard Mille AF Corse immediately showed encouraging form as practice got underway around the demanding Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. The team finished seventh fastest in the LMGT3 class during the opening practice session, with Riccardo Agostini posting a best lap of 1:43.057.
Friday's Bronze-driver session provided even greater encouragement. Custodio Toledo, who would also take qualifying duties, emerged as the leading Ferrari driver and finished third overall among the Bronze-rated competitors.
The positive trend continued in FP2, where the #50 Ferrari again placed seventh in class. This time it was Lilou Wadoux who topped the team's timesheets with a 1:42.927.
As required by the LMGT3 regulations, Bronze-rated driver Custodio Toledo contested qualifying for the Richard Mille AF Corse squad. His opening representative lap of 1:44.8 initially placed the Ferrari seventh before the Brazilian steadily improved as the session progressed.
During the second half of qualifying, Toledo found over a second, recording a 1:43.781 to climb into fourth place. Despite narrowly missing further improvements on his final attempts, fourth position remained secure, earning the #50 Ferrari a place on the second row of the LMGT3 grid. It was an especially encouraging result considering the advantage Toledo held over the other Ferrari entries.
Sunday afternoon brought the European Le Mans Series to one of Europe's most iconic and unforgiving venues. Imola's narrow layout and close barriers once again promised little margin for error.
Starting fourth in LMGT3, Custodio Toledo made an excellent launch aboard the #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari. He safely negotiated the opening laps while holding fourth place despite immediate pressure from Nasser Al-Khelaifi's Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes.
The Mercedes eventually slipped past on lap three, but Toledo refused to lose touch with the leading group and he began gaining several tenths per lap on Maciej Kurzejewski's Proton Competition Porsche ahead while simultaneously defending from Max Moritz's High Class Racing Ferrari behind.
The race's first interruption came after only six laps when Nick Adcock went off in the M Racing LMP3 machine in the Rivazza gravel trap. A Virtual Safety Car turned into a full Safety Car.
Unlike many rivals who immediately headed to pit lane, Toledo remained on track. The strategy promoted the Ferrari into third place in class, though it also placed the team on an alternative strategy compared to most of its competitors.
When racing resumed 33 minutes into the event, Toledo continued running third, as the leading trio all had yet to pit. The Richard Mille Ferrari soon came under attack from Blake McDonald's TF Sport Corvette; after McDonald initially ran wide through Variante Alta, the Corvette completed the move on the following lap, dropping Toledo to fourth.
The team was however required to serve a drive-through penalty for a starting infringement and Toledo served it on lap 18. The costly sanction dropped the #50 Ferrari all the way to 13th in class, undoing the excellent work from the opening stages.
The race remained eventful, with several drivers being caught out by cold tyres after successive neutralisations. Following another Full Course Yellow, Toledo continued circulating in 13th before another Virtual Safety Car, triggered by Takeshi Kimura's stranded Kessel Racing Ferrari, offered another strategic opportunity.
The team elected to keep Toledo aboard. During the subsequent Safety Car procedure, the Ferrari benefited from the pass-around process, regaining its lost lap and returning to the lead lap.
With 2 hours and 32 minutes remaining, Toledo resumed in 12th position before quickly beginning another charge through the Bronze-driver field.
Running some of the strong laps among the amateur drivers, he overtook Michael Birch and advanced to ninth place while closing rapidly on Martin Berry's Mercedes.
After completing his driving time, Toledo finally handed over the Ferrari on lap 45, bringing the #50 into pit lane from ninth in class.
Riccardo Agostini climbed aboard for the middle stint, benefiting from being one of the few Gold-rated drivers now entering the race in the LMGT3 class.
The Italian's opening laps were almost three seconds quicker than the Bronze drivers immediately ahead and rapidly began closing the gaps.
By the time a major accident involving Clement Mateu and Ameerh Naran triggered another lengthy Safety Car intervention with just over two hours remaining, Agostini had again recovered to ninth.
Unfortunately, the timing of the neutralisation worked against the Richard Mille AF Corse strategy, having only recently completed his stop.
When green flag racing resumed with 1 hour and 49 minutes remaining, virtually every GT3 competitor had completed its driver changes, bringing the pro drivers into the race.
Following a brief Full Course Yellow for debris, Agostini climbed into eighth place, moving ahead of the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari.
With one hour remaining, the #50 Ferrari returned to pit lane for its final scheduled driver change. Richard Mille AF Corse entrusted the closing stint to Lilou Wadoux, who rejoined ninth in class, but on a slightly offset fuel strategy compared with several rivals.
As several LMGT3 competitors completed their own final service, Wadoux steadily climbed the order, moving into seventh before advancing to fifth place by lap 88.
Immediately comfortable in the Ferrari, Wadoux unleashed remarkable pace. She lowered the team's benchmark with a 1:43.717 lap, recording the fastest first sector of anyone in the class before improving again to a 1:43.332, at that stage the quickest lap in LMGT3. With every tour she continued finding more speed.
Ahead was Charlie Eastwood's TF Sport Corvette, and Wadoux rapidly erased more than two seconds from the gap. Once Eastwood moved clear, her attention shifted to Thomas Sargent's #75 Proton Competition Porsche. Starting from a deficit of around ten seconds, Wadoux relentlessly chipped away at the margin; by lap 96 it had fallen below four seconds, and the Frenchwoman continued to close at an extraordinary rate.
Within only a handful of laps she was firmly on the Porsche's rear bumper. On lap 101 Wadoux completed a decisive move on Sargent to claim fourth position, but she was far from finished.
One lap later she arrived on the rear of Klaus Bachler's Porsche. Carrying considerably stronger pace, Wadoux executed another overtake to move into third place, completing one of the finest recovery drives of the afternoon.
From there, she immediately began consolidating the podium position. Wadoux pulled away, opening a five-second advantage while setting lap times comparable to the leading duo. Ahead, only the Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes of Maxime Martin remained some 13 seconds up the road, but Wadoux continued matching the leaders sector after sector.
For a moment, a podium finish appeared within reach after the team had recovered from an early drive-through penalty and spending much of the first hour a lap down.
With just five minutes remaining, however, the #50 Ferrari was forced to make a late fuel stop. The heartbreaking extra visit to pit lane dropped Wadoux from third back to eighth position, ending what had looked set to become a podium finish.
Despite the disappointing final result, Wadoux completed a sensational drive: across the entire race, Wadoux ranked as the third-fastest LMGT3 driver on average lap times and comfortably the fastest Silver-rated driver in the field.
Having missed the Barcelona opener because of a clashing commitment, Wadoux secured her first ELMS four points of the season, while the pace shown throughout the Imola weekend offers plenty of encouragement for the remainder of the campaign.
Attention now turns to the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series at the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, where the 4 Hours of Spa will take place on 22–23 August.
