Valentino Rossi’s first outing at Interlagos ends with a Top5 finish at the end of a hard-fought 6h of Sao Paulo.
In the fifth event of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, the ‘Doctor’ was getting to know a track that was brand new to him and his BMW, which he and his teammates Maxime Martin and Ahmah Al Harthy had to try to get used to, not without difficulty.
It had already become clear from the first tests on Friday that it would not be an easy life for the Team WRT trio, with many of their LMGT3 class rivals immediately appearing more on the ball.
“I found the track very beautiful and interesting, it was the first time I raced there, in the free practice on Friday we worked a lot on the car, but we weren’t able to be very fast because the track is narrow and it wasn’t very suitable for our M4”, admits the boy from Tavullia.
“We also suffered a bit too much with the tyres, after a few laps we were already in difficulty without being able to keep a great pace”.
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The biggest problems were encountered by Al Harthy himself, who in qualifying did not go beyond the 12th fastest time, but managed to climb a few positions at the start before alternating twice with Martin in the first 4 hours of the race.
Rossi had a double stint in the second third of a race that saw him make a couple of nice overtaking moves and climb into the top five without making any mistakes and maintaining an excellent pace, at one point even touching the podium, which .
The usual tense finale saw the trophy dreams vanish, even though Martin found a good pace to go and fight against those who were ahead of him at that moment.
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“After the last races in which we had a lot of bad luck, the fifth place is an important and positive result for us”, admits the rider from Pesaro.
“We realised from the beginning of the weekend that we were not fully competitive here, but we fought and improved the car for the race.”
“Ahmad and Maxime did a great job and I also managed my stints well. All in all, we can be satisfied.”
Team Principal Vincent Vosse is a little more upset: “I am very dissatisfied with the race in the LMGT3 class. If we only finish fifth with the #46 despite an error-free performance, then there is something wrong with the speed compared to our rivals.”
“But we fought and picked up points. It was all we could do given the circumstances.”
#WEC #Rossi #difficulties #Top5 #good
