GTWC | Weerts-Vanthoor dominate Race 2, Rossi-Martin third

Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor dominated Race 2 of the GT World Challenge Europe-Sprint Cup in Misano, dominating the night round on the ‘Marco Simoncelli’ from the first to the last lap.

The Belgian pair engaged with the BMW #32 had no rivals and completed the great day for Team WRT which also had the M4 #46 of Valentino Rossi and Maxime Martin on the podium, authors of a good comeback from fifth place.

At the start Weerts immediately pulled away, even after a brief introduction of the Safety Car to remove the Porsche of Stéphane Denoual, who ended up spinning right on the straight in a very awkward manner, and with Nicolas Baert’s Aston Martin #7 stopped in the first chicane after the rear-ended by Alex Aka’s Audi #99.

Lucas Auer instead kept the Mercedes #48 of Winward Racing second, leaving it in the same place as his colleague Maro Engel after the round of stops, while Rossi on lap 4 was sensational in overtaking the Audi #111 of Simon Gachet (CSA Racing ) taking fourth place.

The ‘Doctor’ then approached the #69 Ferrari of Emil Frey Racing driven by the excellent Giacomo Altoè, who however, in the stop to hand over the wheel to Thierry Vermeulen, lost precious seconds by slipping into fourth behind Martin.

The second part of the race was a breakaway managed by Vanthoor, while Engel had to sweat a lot to keep Martin behind him, who couldn’t find the gap to pass the Mercedes and had to settle for a 3rd step of the podium which still earned applause in the end. this beautiful weekend for crew #46.

Altoè/Vermeulen were fourth at the finish line, followed by the Porsche #96 of Muller/Niederhauser (Rutronik Racing), who moved up a couple of positions, putting the McLaren #159 of Garage 59 driven by Gamble/Goethe behind them.

Seventh place for Green/Lappalainen with the second Ferrari of Emil Frey Racing, followed by the Mercedes of Perez Companc/Keen (#90 Madpanda Motorsport) and Gounon/Gotz (#9 Boutsen VDS), rising from the back, and by the BMW #30 of Team WRT which achieved an encore success in the Silver Cup Class with the Williams/De Haan duo.

Second place in the category was taken by Stadsbader/Klymenko in the Audi #26 of Saintéloc Racing, followed by the Ferrari #52 of AF Corse of the Machiels/Hudspeth duo, with great risk taken by the Briton in spinning at the last corner on the the final.

In the Gold Cup Class three Audis led by Gachet/Legeret with the R8 #111 of CSA, ahead of the #88 of Haase/Ferrari (Tresor Attempto Racing) and the #6 of Hofer/Engstler (Team Engstler).

Finally comes the first success in the Bronze Cup for the Ferrari #93 of Sky-Tempesta Racing in the hands of Cheever/Hui, second place is snatched at the end by the BMW #991 of Harper/Leung (Century Motorsport) with a nice strong overtaking to the detriment of the Lamborghini #85 of Imperiale Racing with De Wilde/Gvazava on top.