Team WRT win both sprint races to extend their record of 15 wins in 19 races at the Misano World Circuit in a chaotic weekend which saw both Charles Weerts and Kelvin Van Der Linde move up to 3rd in the drivers championship. Here's how both races unfolded.
Race 1
pole positions
Overall: Valentino Rossi - Team WRT
Gold: Dylan Pereira - Tressor Attempto Racing
Silver: Andrea Frassineti - Tressor Attempto Racing
Bronze: Fabian Schiller - Getspeed team Dubai
With the home hero Valentino Rossi starting on pole the Italian fans were hoping to see him win for the 4th time in Gt World Challenge and the 7th time in his racing career.
Key Moments
It was a chaotic start to say the least, with contact between Rossi's BMW and Frassineti's Audi which resulted in Frassineti taking the bystander Juncadella out with him bringing out the safety car on the opening lap. Rossi who dropped to 4th and ended up with a 10 second penalty for jumping the start had this to say about the start when talking to Bryn Lucas in the garage "I think it's because i was a little too much on the right(to the grid lines) .... After the start and this is the mistake for the penalty. After i was touched on the rear i was a passenger i was lucky i stayed straight".
On the safety car restart it was a clean lap from the pack with Weerts leading from Marvin Dienst and a fierce but fair battle between Lucas Auer, Ricardo Feller for P5 broke out with Feller clearly having the better pace but Auer's defending was faultless meaning no way through for number 80 Porsche and this also brought Tommaso Mosca into play giving Feller more to think about than just all out attack. However this little story was brought to an end when Auer was able to find some pace and was able to pull away and build a gap of around 2 seconds until his pit stop. Towards the end of the first stint, Bronze class driver Dienst was starting to carve into Weert's lead after falling behind by 3 seconds and managed to the get the gap down by almost half before he pulled into the pits and handed the wheel over to Salikhov for the second stint.
Heading into the second half of the race Kelvin Van Der Linde took over the leading BMW from Charles Weerts and it was smooth sailing for the South Africian who was able to build a gap of 9 seconds over the Porsche of Bastian Buus with 19 minutes remaining. The final twist of this crazy race was a full course yellow with 4 minutes remaining due to the 555 Mclaren driven Romain Andriolo being beached in the gravel which brought the race to a slow conclusion after a chaotic and exciting opening.
Podium Finishers
Pro class
P1- Charles Weerts, Kelvin Van Der Linde
P2- Ricardo Feller, Bastian Buus
P3- Lucas Auer, Maro Engel
Gold Class
P1- Dylan Pereira, Alex Aka
P2- Thomas Flemming, Louis Prette
P3- Tommaso Mosca, Matias Zagazeta
Silver Class
P1- Matisse Lismont, Ignacio Montenegro
P2- Jamie Day, Mateo Villagomez
P3- Anthony Bartone, Aurelien Panis
Bronze Class
P1- Fabian Schiller, Gabriel Rindone
P2- Marvin Dienst, Rinat Salikhov
P3- Dennis Marschall, Dustin Blattner
Race 2
Pole positions
Overall - Jules Gounon - Mercedes AMG Team Verstappen Racing
Gold - Arthur Rougier - CSA Racing
Silver - Aurelien Panis - GetSpeed Team Bartone Bros
Bronze - Charles Dawson - 2Seas Motorsport
Key Moments
Starting on pole for the first time in the GT world challenge, Team Verstappen Racing lined up with Jules Gounon behind the wheel and hoping for better luck and a better start than race 1 which saw them DNF on the run down to turn 1. However to win for the first time would be challenging as sharing the front row with them was the winning WRT from the opening race with Kelvin Van Der Linde taking the start so the number 3 Mercedes would have a fight on their hands to take the checkered flag first.
Luckily, It was a less chaotic start for the second sprint race of the weekend but it was nonetheless dramatic with Jules Gounon and Van Der Linde side by side for consecutive corners before the BMW had to back out as Gounon shut the door going into turn 6. It was also a good start for Jordan Pepper who carved his way through the field to get up into P5 from P10; Not the same could be said for Bastian Buss who after having a poor qualifying starting in P13 needed to start moving forward through the field but instead on the race start fell back into p14 and really struggled for pace in the beginning opening laps. However he was able to rectify the situation and got into a good rhythm and took back P13 with a brilliant move into turn 1 and almost got the number 14 Lamborghini into turn 2 but was quickly cut off from completing the move. Just as it seemed that Buus was able to easily clear the Lambo and get back on track with his race, as he went for the move he got too greedy into the corner and spun the Lambo around causing a drive through penalty to come the way of the number 80 Porsche adding to an already dreadful day. and demolishing the small hope that was left of a good finish.
It was then time for the pit stops and time for the pit crews to shine. Leading up to the stops Gounon was able to hold the BMW at bay but team WRT have won the pit stop challenge championship for 2 consecutive years so when called upon they will come up with the winning pit stop. That proved true during the race as this was the deciding moment of the race as the WRT pit crew was able to be 3.1 seconds faster than the 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes which allowed Charles Weerts to jump Dani Juncadella to take 1st place. This was a prime example as to why motor sport is a team game as without the pit crews the win might not have been on the cards for the number 32 BMW. Van Der Linde was full of praise for the guys in the garage saying "these guys are absolute world class, a faultless performance! That's what makes WRT what it is, it's so special to see the team operating at such a high level". To prove how impressive the pit stop was from WRT even Jules gounon who got pipped from the lead during the stops had nothing but praise to say about the rivals further down the pitlane: " the guys did a very good pit stop but fair play to WRT they did a monster pit stop". Although it will hurt the mercedes garage nothing can be taken away from garage 32 who won the race for the team.
With 15 minutes to go the final podium place was up for grabs with Lucas Auer hunting down the doctor Valentino Rossi. Auer was hot on Rossi's heels with him pumping in the fastest laps to get within 3 seconds with ten minutes to go setting it up for a grandstand finish.Then on the penultimate lap the moment Rossi and the Italian home crowd were dreading; Auer was able to get past with a clean move on the straight before Curvone ending Rossi's hope for a podium on home soil.
After the fantastic pit stop to take the lead, Charles Weerts crossed the line to complete the double for WRT and breaks the record for the most amount of wins in the sprint cup of any driver with 20 wins to his name.
Podium Finishers
Pro Class
P1- Charles Weerts, Kelvin Van Der Linde
P2- Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon
P3- Lucas Auer, Maro Engel
Gold Class
P1- Dylan Pereira, Alex Aka
P2- Thomas Fleming, Louis Prette
P3- Simon Gachet, Romain Andriolo
Silver Class
P1- Anthony Bartone, Aurelien Panis
P2- Jamie Day, Mateo Villagomez
P3- Matisse Lismont, Ignacio Montenegro
Bronze Class
P1- Marvin Dienst, Rinat Salikhov
P2- Eddie Cheever, Peter Dempsey
P3- Kiern Jewiss, Charles Dawson
What's next
The GT world challenge heads to France and the Never Magny Cours Circuit for round 6 of the championship on the weekend of the 31st of July. Can WRT carry their form into the next round? We will have to find out!
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