Vanthoor-Weerts on the Wrt BMW M4 returned to victory in the GT World Challenge Sprint in race 2 in Valencia. Patrese still first among the Silvers, Rossi-Martin immediately out
– Milan
They are the most successful couple in the history of the GT World Challenge Sprint, three times champions in a row and reigning: Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts they have had some difficulties this year after the move to BMW, but the talent of the two young Belgians is too great not to adapt and return to the top. Starting from thirteenth position in race 2 in Valencia, they took advantage of the safety cars and perfect timing of the stop to leap into the lead and keep the wild Audi #40 of Tresor Orange1 driven by Tresor Orange1 behind them until the end. Mattia Drudi and Ricardo Feller. Third place for the Ferrari 296 of Emil Frey Racing entrusted to Albert Costa and Thierry Vermeulen. Too bad for the BMW #46 instead Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi: the Belgian started from third position and immediately attempted to move onto the straight, but ended up on the grass and damaged the front radiator due to a bitter withdraw after just five minutes. Ninth position instead for Marciello-Boguslavskiy, who thus maintain a 7.5 point lead in the championship over Drudi-Feller and 14.5 over Vanthoor-Weerts ahead of the last Sprint event in Zandvoort in mid-October. Another success in Silver for the Patrese-Aka couple, who achieved a double.
The race
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Pole position in the wet was taken by the #26 Gold class Audi R8 Simon Gachetwho immediately took the lead in the Ferrari #69 of Albert Costa. Given Martin’s immediate retirement during the safety car caused by multiple contacts on the first lap, he took third place Lorenzo Patrese, with his #99 Silver class Audi. The young Italian found himself defending the position from Maximilian Paul’s Lamborghini Vsr #163, also in the Silver class. Further back, two protagonists of the title fight staged a great comeback: Mattia Drudi in the Audi #40 he immediately moved up to fifth place, Dries Vanthoor in the BMW #32 in seventh after starting 10th and 13th respectively. However, the car of the championship leaders is in much more difficulty, with Timur Boguslavskiy in the Mercedes #88 on the edge of the top-20. A second safety car around halfway through the race reduced the gaps again, with Gachet still in the lead over Costa and Drudi. At the restart and the opening of the stops, the team Wrt immediately recalled Vanthoor on the #32, sending Charles Weerts onto the track after a very quick stop. The Belgian thus returned ahead of all his opponents and thus found himself having to defend for the rest of the match from Ricardo Feller’s Audi #40, without making any mistakes. Third place for Costa-Vermeulen’s Ferrari, second in race 1. Raffaele Marciello staged a great comeback in the second half of the race, overtaking several cars to finish ninth.
The other classes
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In the Silver class the protagonists were once again the very young ones Lorenzo Patrese and Alex Aka, who on board the Audi #99 of Tresor Attempto led a leading race, even finishing fifth overall. Second place for the #77 Mercedes of Valente-Love, third for the #28 Honda Nsx of Moncini-Guidetti. Among the Gold cars, Audi achieved a hat-trick, with the #26 starting from pole, with the French Gachet-Evrard, ahead of the #9 of Panis-Di Folco and the #21 of Hutchison-Magnus. Finally, among the Bronze category cars, the Porsche #911 of Pure Rxcing won, entrusted to Alex Malykhin and Ayhancan Guven, with the Belarusian driver also winning the title. Second place for the Mercedes #81 of Reema Juffali and Fabian Schiller, third for the Audi #66 of Mukovoz and Marschall.
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