Problems with car number 46 after the driver change, with the Doctor’s teammate inheriting a car with the wheel arch touching the left front tire. Boguslavskiy-Marciello (Mercedes-Amg Akkodis) and Neubauer-Goethe of Team Wrt (Silver Cup) on the podium
Race 1 of the fourth round out of five of the Sprint Cup of the GT World Challenge Europe is a mix of emotions and twists: on the Misano track named after Marco Simoncelli, Valentino Rossi and colleagues give a spectacle of overtaking, trajectories at the limit and accidents. The last race weekend before the 24h of Spa is a trap for the Audi number 46 of Team Wrt: in Race 1 a small contact occurred just before the pit stop for the usual driver change ruins the games of the crew composed of Valentino Rossi and Frederic Vervisch, forced to retire. Perfect race, however, for the other Audi of Team Wrt, that number 32 of Charles Weerts (author of the pole position on Saturday morning) paired with Dries Vanthoor. Despite the excellent pace shown in his stint, nothing to do for Raffaele Marciello (Mercedes-Amg Akkodis Asp paired with Timur Boguslavskiy), 2nd on a track more suited to Audi than to Mercedes, as shown by the ranking. Completing the podium are Thomas Neubauer and Benjamin Goethe (Audi Team Wrt, Silver Cup). Race 2 will take place on Sunday 3 July at 2.45 pm live on Sky Sport Action HD and on the GT World Challenge YouTube channel.
GT World Challenge Europe: the starting grid for Race 1
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The 20 ‘of qualifying 1 gave clear indications on the performance of the GT3 category cars on the Misano track: the Audi’s were super competitive, in particular the one driven by Charles Weerts, author of the best time with a time of 1’31 ”268. Front row for Vincent Abril in JP Motorsport’s McLaren 720S, thanks to a third space sector. To keep the honor of Mercedes-Amg high is Timur Boguslavskiy with the third fastest time ahead of Lorenzo Patrese (paired with Mattia Drudi in Audi R8 of the Tresor by Car Collection team). Seventh time for the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Pierre Alexandre Jean (paired with Ulysse De Pauw), while Valentino Rossi (Audi R8 Team Wrt) accuses a delay of 978 thousandths from the author of the pole position, starting 15th after having turned right on the most beautiful, in the third sector of the last lap launched.
GT World Challenge Europe: the go
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Charles Weerts (Audi R8 Lms evo II GT3 of Team Wrt) maintains the first position conquered in qualifying, followed by Vincent Abril (McLaren 720S GT3 of JP Motorsport team) and Timur Boguslavskiy (Mercedes-Amg GT3 of Akkodis Asp team). But immediately on the first lap Eddie Cheever’s Mercedes number 93 arrives long at the Quercia corner, colliding with Aurelien Panis’ Audi R8, which ends up in a spin. Many manage to avoid the car, not the Ferrari 488 GT3 of the AF Corse team of Hugo Delacour, forced to retire due to the damage caused following the accident. After the Safety Car it is Jules Gounon (Mercedes-Amg GT3 of Akkodis Asp team) who draws the attention of the cameras, protagonist of a good comeback in his stint after starting from the last row despite the fourth time in qualifying, penalized for an administrative error that led his teammate Jim Pla to take part in qualifying 1 instead of Jules Gounon himself.
GT World Challenge Europe: the driver change
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Before the pit stop waltz Weerts stretches on Abril, building a small advantage for his teammate. Inside the pits at the first useful opportunity both McLaren number 112 and Mercedes number 89, with Raffaele Marciello inheriting the steering wheel from Timur Boguslavskiy’s excellent stint. Disastrous, however, the pit stop of the JP Motorsport team (1 ‘and 18 “against 1’ and 5” of Akkodis): McLaren returned to the track several seconds late and losing some positions. One lap later Valentino Rossi also returns, leaving the Audi R8 seat to teammate Frederic Vervisch. But on the first lap of Vervisch the front left wheel arch touches the tire, creating smoke and problems for Vervisch to keep the car on the track. Frederic is thus forced to another passage to the pits to give the mechanics the chance to fix the damage, but slipping into twenty-second and last position among the remaining crews.
GT World Challenge Europe: the finale
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Raffaele Marciello enters the track unleashed and – thanks to the second place gained during the driver change against the number 112 McLaren – with cold tires he earns eight tenths per lap for two laps against the leader Vanthoor in the Audi R8. 20 ‘from the end of regular time Vervisch returns to the pits a third time, this time to retire: “Given the situation in the standings, we preferred to stop to save the car for Sunday’s Race 2. There was probably a contact between Vale and another competitor during the return to the pits, ”said Vervisch. In the final, Jean-De Pauw’s Ferrari AF Corse lost pace, up to that moment authors of a good performance (eighth final position). At the same time, there is a 10-second penalty for the McLaren number 112 for unsafe release at the pit stop: not only the second position lost due to a very slow driver change, also the mockery of the penalty that crushes the 720S crew (14th). Frozen the first two positions, with Vanthoor keeping Marciello at a distance, the fight for third place on the podium is a head to head between the Audi number 30 (Neubauer-Goethe of Team Wrt) and the number 11 of Gachet-Haase (team Tresor by Car Collection). In the end the number 30 prevails (first among the participants of the Silver Cup), with Goethe closing all the doors to Haase. Gounon and Pla manage to enter the top ten after starting behind everyone, preventing Lorenzo Patrese and Mattia Drudi from finishing in the top ten. Thirteenth place for Alberto di Folco, paired with Albert Costa in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of the Imperiale Racing team.
gt world challenge europe, misano: the rankings
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GT World Challenge Europe: Race 1 Misano classification
- Weerts-Vanthoor (Audi Team Wrt) 37 laps
- Boguslavskiy-Marciello (Mercedes-Amg Akkodis Asp) at 5 ”608
- Neubauer-Goethe (Audi Team Wrt) at 16 ”399
- Gachet-Haase (Audi Tresor by Car Collection) at 17 ”983
- Schotorst-Marschall (Audi Attempto Racing) at 28 ”343
- Simmenauer-Mies (Audi Team Wrt) at 28 ”501
- Baert-Legeret (Audi Sainteloc Junior Team) at 40 ”726
- Jean-De Pauw (Ferrari AF Corse) at 42 ”139
- Stevenson-Drouet (Mercedes-Amg Akkodis Asp) at 42 ”970
- Gounon-Pla (Mercedes-Amg Akkodis Asp) at 43 ”769.
GT World Challenge Europe: Sprint Cup championship standings
- Charles Weerts (Bel-Audi) 92 points
- Dries Vanthoor (Bel-Audi) 92
- Raffaele Marciello (Svi-Mercedes-Amg) 86
- Timur Boguslavskiy (Rus-Mercedes-Amg) 86
- Jim Pla (Fra-Mercedes-Amg) 49.5
- Ulysse De Pauw (Bel-Ferrari) 43
- Pierre Alexandre Jean (Fra-Ferrari) 43
- Simon Gachet (Fra-Audi) 38
- Christopher Haase (Ger-Audi) 38
- Jules Gounon (Fra-Mercedes-Amg) 37.
02 July 2022 – 17:43
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