The two-day collective test organized by SRO Motorsports for the participants in the 2022 season of the GT World Challenge Europe was also the first time on the track with rivals for Valentino Rossi.
Fresh from the birth of little Giulietta and from the successes achieved by his VR46 guys at the opening weekend of the MotoGP World Championship in Lusail, the ‘Doctor’ presented himself polished to the Paul Ricard.
Together with Team WRT colleagues, Frédéric Vervisch and Nico Muller, he took over the steering wheel of his Audi R8 LMS Evo II # 46 – of which he presented the livery on Monday afternoon – putting together 73 laps and collecting very useful information to refine the job in view of the debut in Imola in less than a month.
As for the times, the boy from Tavullia achieved the best lap in 1’54 “735 in the morning, stopping almost 0” 8 from the time in Vervisch, while the absolute reference during these tests was the Mercedes # 777 of HRT in 1’52 “533.
Beyond the performances, which in the pre-season tests always have a relative value considering that everyone does their job, for Rossi and his teammates the feedback was positive.
# 46 WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3
Photo by: SRO
“It was a good day of testing, the first in which we were able to compare ourselves with the times of the rivals on the track, so we had some references”, declared the Italian, who returned to Le Castellet after a long time.
“It wasn’t a new track for me, even though I hadn’t raced there for 20 years now. It took me a while to adapt, but it turned out well in the end. “
“We worked a lot on the car and the set-up, obviously there are areas where we have to work hard and improve, but the sensations are good.”
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