Imperatori began karting in Spain and contested events in Germany and France until 2002, winning the French Junior Karting Championship in 2000 and competing in the European Championship from 2000 to 2002. In 2003 he transitioned toward single-seater racing, reaching the final of the Mygale scholarship programme. In 2006 he won the China Formula Renault Challenge, earning a test with Renault Sport in the World Series by Renault, and competed as runner-up in the Asian Formula Renault Challenge that year. He repeated the runner-up result in 2007.
From December 2007 Imperatori raced for the Swiss national team in the A1 Grand Prix series. The squad won the 2007–08 championship and finished second in 2008–09.
Concurrently he competed in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship from 2008 to 2010. He placed second in the National class in 2008, third in 2009, and in 2010 stepped up to the main Championship class with TODA Racing, driving the only Honda-powered car on the grid to finish fifth. His 2010 season concluded with the Macau Grand Prix, where he recovered from twenty-sixth on the grid to twelfth after suffering a brake failure during the qualification race. In 2011 he advanced to Formula Nippon, Japan's highest domestic single-seater series.
In 2011 Imperatori expanded into GT competition on two fronts. In the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia he joined Team Starchase mid-season as a replacement for Christian Menzel, winning eight of the ten rounds he entered. He missed two Singapore rounds due to scheduling conflicts and finished third in the championship. Keita Sawa had held the title in the preceding year; Earl Bamber would succeed Imperatori as champion the following season. In 2012 Imperatori returned to the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and won the championship outright, claiming fourteen victories, five poles, and ten fastest laps from nineteen starts.
In Super GT GT300 in 2011, Imperatori raced for Team SG Changi in a Lexus IS350, winning at Sportsland SUGO and taking podiums at Fuji and Autopolis to finish sixth in the class standings with 49 points. He also won the GTC class at the ILMC 6 Hours of Zhuhai that year for Audi Sport C Racing China. Subsequent Super GT GT300 seasons followed in 2012, 2014, and 2015 with varying results.
In 2013 Imperatori joined KCMG for the team's debut appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Morgan LMP2 Nissan, making KCMG the first Chinese team to race at Le Mans. Sharing with Matthew Howson and Ho-Pin Tung, the car did not finish.
He drove KCMG's full 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season in an Oreca 03R Nissan, winning the LMP2 class at the 6 Hours of Bahrain and the 6 Hours of São Paulo and placing sixth in the LMP2 standings.
From 2015 to 2016 Imperatori raced LMP1 machinery for Rebellion Racing in the Rebellion R-One AER. At the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours he placed seventeenth overall. In 2016 he recorded third-place finishes at the 6 Hours of Silverstone and the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, ultimately finishing seventh in the LMP1 standings on 66.5 points; the Le Mans car again retired.
Imperatori contested the Nürburgring 24 Hours from 2014 to 2021, spending the first six editions with Falken Motorsports and the final two with KCMG. His best result came in 2015 when the Falken entry placed third overall.
In IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition he made appearances in 2014 for Mühlner Motorsports America in GTD with a Porsche 911 GT America, and in 2022 for KCMG in GTD Pro with a Porsche 911 GT3 R, finishing third in class at Daytona that year. His most recent series listed is the GT World Challenge Asia with GetSpeed Performance in 2023.
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