Valentino Rossi took to the track with the Audi R8 Lms Evo II number 46 in the first half hour of the second session of the day, improving his personal performance in free practice and trying a race pace without serious errors. Only a small flaw in the last 5 ‘, but now he is 4 tenths behind his teammates
In the morning’s free practice session he let his teammates Nico Müller and Frédéric Vervisch take to the track before doing a session of almost half an hour to gain further confidence with the car and the track. In pre-qualifying (it is so called because in case of cancellation of the qualifying it replaces official practice, but in fact it is a second free practice session) he immediately takes the wheel in hand and starts grinding km: Valentino Rossi enters decisively in the early afternoon on the Imola circuit, with the desire to learn, improve, progress.
GT World Challenge Europe: Valentino Rossi’s session
–
The goal, it is worth repeating, is to gain the maximum possible confidence and look for the race pace, rather than the dry lap time. The positive note, for Valentino Rossi, is a stint of 30 ‘without errors, without driving smears and also with the momentary 11th time at 0.9 ”from the leader. A sign that the lap time is not bad, given that in the morning he suffered a delay of almost 2 ”from teammates Nico Müller and Frédéric Vervisch, while in the afternoon he almost completely filled the gap, reaching 4 tenths of a second. And on a tortuous circuit like that of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack, with 52 cars on the track, starting in front has its fair share. In the final, given the very different asphalt conditions compared to the light rain at the beginning of the session, Rossi returned to the track to test the track conditions and test the car in optimal conditions. Only a wide corner at the last corner prevented the Doctor from improving – or at least replicating, with used tires – the time set at the beginning of the session (1’41 ”041).
GT World Challenge Europe: what a wild card for the 46!
–
Between the free practice session and the pre-qualifying session, a few drops of water wet the asphalt of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit. But concurrently with the second session of the GT World Challenge Europe the sun returned, with track conditions gradually improving. Mid-session scare for Audi number 46, in the hands of Frédéric Vervisch: Valentino Rossi’s teammate went too wide at the Villeneuve chicane, putting two wheels in the gravel and only with a great counter-steering was he able to regain control of the car also avoiding to collide a Lamborghini out of the way. The Belgian of the Audi Wrt team improved by about half a second the time recorded previously by Valentino Rossi, in fact returning to the times set during the morning.
GT World Challenge Europe: pre-qualifying in the name of Mercedes
–
At the end of pre-qualifying, the Mercedes Amg GT of Marciello-Juncadella-Gounon still sets the best time, followed by that of Engel-Schothorst-Stolz. Tenth time for Jack Aitken, with a recent past in Formula 2 and sharing the cockpit of the Lamborghini Huracan of the Emil Frey Racing team with Albert Costa and Mirko Bortolotti. Drudi and Ghiotto (teamed with Haase) glued to 20 thousandths and in eleventh position, while Rigon, Serra and Fuoco are thirteenth, behind Liebhauser-Ferrari-Auer. The Porsche Bachler-Ledogar-Cairoli trio precedes the formation of Valentino Rossi, who closed the session in 15th position, 474 thousandths from the best time. Patrese is 18th in the Audi number 11, while the Ferrari of Molina-Nielsen-Calado does not go beyond the twenty-sixth position. In a second there are 30 crews, a thrilling race to say the least.
the top 10
–
Below is the Top 10 of the pre-qualifying (in fact a second free practice session) of the GT World Challenge Europe. Valentino Rossi and his teammates will be back on track on Sunday morning from 9 to 10 for the official qualifying of the opening race of the 2022 season, with the 3-hour race from 15 to 18.
- Marciello-Juncadella-Gounon (Mercedes) in 1’40 “164
- Engel-Schothorst-Stolz (Mercedes) at 0 ”058
- Legert-Niederhauser-Mies (Audi) at 0 ”074
- Puhakka-Winkelhock-Marschall (Audi) at 0 ”237
- Zug-Scholl-Aka (Audi) at 0 ”237
- Martin-Sorensen-Thiim (Aston Martin) at 0 ”266
- Millroy-Iribe-Schandorff (McLaren) at 0 ”292
- Vanthoor-Van der Linde-Weerts (Audi) at 0 ”302
- Klien-Abril-Lind (McLaren) at 0 ”332
- Aitken-Costa-Bortolotti (Lamborghini) at 0 ”339.
02 April 2022 – 16:30
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED