No. 81 leads TF Sport with sixth in LM GT3; No. 33 retains championship lead
IMOLA, Italy (April 20, 2025) – TF Sport’s two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs finished in points-paying positions Sunday at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Imola with the team’s No. 33 retaining its championship lead in the LM GT3 class.
Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy led the TF Sport effort with a sixth-place effort in the No. 81 Corvette after starting 10th in class. Right behind in seventh was the championship-leading No. 33 Z06 GT3.R of Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating. The trio came from 16th at the start, weathered contact that sent Keating off-track in the opening hour.
Apart from that, the race for both Corvette squads was trouble-free and – more importantly – mistake-free to maximize the Imola weekend. This despite a lack of performance that left the two Corvettes near the bottom of the 18-car field through the three practice sessions.
Progress was steady for the TF Sport Z06 GT3.Rs. Keating gained four spots in the early-going before he was hit by another GT3 car, and Van Rompuy gained three positions by the end of his nearly two-hour stint. That left Andrade in seventh and Edgar sniffing the top-10 and the points mid-race.
Mistakes, crashes and penalties for faster competitors continued to push the Corvettes up the running order heading into the final stints for Eastwood and Juncadella, who had a spirited fight after the final pit stops in the final hour.
The next race in the FIA WEC for TF Sport and the Corvette Z06 GT3.R is the Six Hours of Spa on Saturday, May 10.
TF SPORT POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – SIXTH IN LM GT3: “P6 at the flag in our Corvette. I think this morning and all week we probably would have taken that. We haven’t had the pace of the front-runners all week, but it was a super and faultless race. Not one mistake between us. Both Tom and Rui – especially Rui’s middle stint really kept us in it – were strong. There were some tough battles out there, for sure. Whenever you’re lacking pace, you obviously feel like you’re on the back foot. But we got the elbows out and pushed as much as we could to the flag, so we’ll take P6.
(Late-race battle with the No. 33) “We knew from five to six laps prior to the stop that it was going to be close at pit exit. He just got me coming out, but we preserved the tires pretty well and I knew we had a little bit more. It was a little too close for comfort at one point! But it’s all good with P6 and P7 for the team.”
RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – SIXTH IN LM GT3: “It looked like we were lacking pace through practice and up until qualifying. The car felt pretty good but I couldn’t get a lap together with track limits. Starting P10 wasn’t the end of the world. In the race the car just comes alive and the pace comes to us. I think P6 was the maximum for us. We did a really good job as a team… no mistakes and no penalties. All of us did a great job. We just didn’t have the pace to fight for the leading positions. But we maximized the result, and I’m happy with that.”
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – SIXTH IN LM GT3: “I think our result was unexpected. The first part of the race went really well. Everyone did a great job. We tried to maximize our stints by doing a lot of energy-saving and saving our tires for the second stints. It was a really clean race for both cars, and it’s really good to come away from here with what I feel are maximum points for our car.”
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – SEVENTH IN LM GT3: “Round Two at Imola is done. It was a difficult weekend for us, but I’m very happy with the result in our Corvette. P7 in the end is good points for our championship and keeps us in the lead. It was a hard weekend. We struggled all weekend with pace in general, but I think it will be way better at the next one. At the end of the day, P7 feels like a good result out of here.”
JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – SEVENTH IN LM GT3: “It was a very difficult weekend. It was pretty clear from the start that we lacked some pace, and any point we earned we were going to be happy with. The team did a really good job in the race. With both cars we got the maximum we could with the speed we had. None of us really made mistakes, the pit stops were good, the car felt really nice to drive… I don’t think across the weekend we could have done a lot more, so I’m happy. It’s been two weekends in our car where we had results that were slightly better than our pace, which is always good.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – SEVENTH IN LM GT3: “I said that I felt like it would be an Easter miracle if we got in the points. And we got in the points! So an Easter miracle. It was another perfect execution by everyone on the team. That was the difference. We did not have a fast car. By the end of it, I think all three drivers in our car had four track-limit warnings, and on the fifth you get a penalty. So well done to everyone on the team.
“Unfortunately I got spun around by another car during my stint. But in a way I was very happy with the way it went down. I was able to keep the car running, didn’t brake and rolled right back into the track and headed into the right direction. We only lost three spots so it didn’t cost us much. A great weekend from everyone here at TF Sport. I’m happy to still be in the points lead. The cars that finished second, third, fifth and sixth weren’t in the points at Qatar. The Lexus that finished fourth in Qatar was in the points here and ahead of us. So they will be pretty close in the championship, but we are still in the lead and I like our chances for the rest of the season.”
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