Team WRT’s Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello charged to victory in this evening’s GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup race at Misano, aboard the #46 BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
After Rossi held on to his third-placed starting position throughout the opening start, Marciello emerged from the mandatory pit stop six seconds behind the pole sitting #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 of Alessio Rovera and Vincent Abril.
Marciello set to work on closing the gap, setting the fastest lap of the race as he chipped away at Abril’s margin. Abril’s advantage fell to under a second with nine minutes to go, allowing Marciello to have his first look for the lead at Turn 11.
One lap later, Marciello had the better run out of Turn 10 and Abril was powerless to defend into Turn 11, with the Swiss driver taking the lead up the inside.
Marciello pulled the advantage out all the way to the finish, beating the Ferrari by 1.580 seconds.
It is an incredible 13th win for Team WRT across the last 16 Misano Sprint Cup races. For Marciello, it’s a win on his first Sprint Cup start for BMW, whilst for Rossi it’s a third Misano win in as many years. Notably, it is the first of those victories for which Rossi was also the qualifying driver.
“’Lello did a fantastic job,” exclaimed a jubilant Rossi. “He was like a train. Since the beginning I knew he could do it. Congratulations also to the Ferrari, but ‘Lello was faster.”
“I told Vale yesterday, if you qualify top four we win the race,” added Marciello.
Rovera controlled the opening stint from pole position, ahead of the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Dennis Marschall. Marschall, as a Bronze Cup runner, was never a factor for overall victory since Bronze is the only class to feature a minimum pit stop time, but this didn’t stop him from briefly putting Rovera under pressure at the conclusion of a brief Full Course Yellow 12 minutes in.
Although it wasn’t the home win they would’ve hoped for, it was still a strong showing from the #51 Ferrari pairing, who scored their first points since they won the Brands Hatch season opener.
Completing the podium were Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde in the #32 Team WRT BMW, who extended their lead in the drivers’ championship. Weerts ran seventh in the opening stint, but a strong in-lap enabled them to jump the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) and #14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari in the pits and move into third once all the pit stops had played out.
Winward Racing’s Lucas Auer and Maro Engel finished fourth in the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, after Engel passed Rutronik Racing’s Sven Müller at the start of the final lap. This completed a strong comeback drive for the Winward duo, who had started 15th.
The result moves Auer and Engel up to second in the drivers’ championship, seven points behind Weerts and van der Linde at the halfway point of the season.
Müller and Patric Niederhauser had to settle for fifth, with the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo of Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer completing the top six. Like the #48 Mercedes-AMG, they started on the backfoot after a disappointing qualifying, but Goethe undid most of the damage with a brilliant opening lap on which he gained 10 positions.
Seventh went to the #14 Emil Frey Racing entry, ahead of the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 and the Gold Cup-winning #58 Garage 59 McLaren of Thomas Fleming and Louis Prette.
The door was opened for Garage 59 after opening lap contact between Emil Frey Racing’s Chris Lulham and AlManar Racing by WRT’s Jens Klingmann on the opening lap forced both drivers to pull off with damage. Following a poor start from Gold Cup pole sitter Lulham in the #69 Ferrari, the British driver found himself on the outside of three-wide on the exit of Turn 5. Klingmann, in the middle, made contact with the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG of Maxime Martin on the inside, which ricocheted Klingmann’s #777 BMW into Lulham.
The contact also saw Martin spin and clip the wall, but the Belgian driver was able to continue and he and Luca Stolz recovered to 20th.
Silver Cup honours went to the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Ezequiel Perez Companc and Alex Aka, who became the first repeat winners in Silver this season in 10th overall.
The #99 Audi led almost the entire race, with the car only briefly headed when Jamie Day in the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo passed Perez Companc for a few corners during the opening stint. Day and Kob Pauwels finished second, with the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi completing the class podium.
The #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG, which started the day in the Silver championship lead, suffered a major blow after a loose rear right wheel forced it to retire following its pit stop.
In Bronze, Marschall and Dustin Blattner took their second Sprint win of the season to extend their championship lead. After Marschall pulled away from the class opposition early on, Blattner held on to the advantage whilst he was passed by higher class opposition to bring the car home over four
seconds ahead of the #991 Paradine Competition BMW.
The #85 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini completed the Bronze Cup podium, after the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche was given a post-race penalty for causing a collision.
UPDATE: Post-race, multiple cars were penalised 10 seconds for disrespecting FCY conditions. Significantly, these included the #96 Porsche, #14 Ferrari, #63 Lamborghini and #58 McLaren. This promoted the #99 Audi to sixth overall, with the cars listed above demoted to seventh through 10th respectively.
Separately, the #21 Aston Martin was given a five second time penalty for track limits. This dropped it to third in Silver, promoting the #26 Audi to second.
Race 2 at Misano starts at 14:45 CEST tomorrow, with Qualifying 2 taking place at 10:25 CEST.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
