During the Rookie Tests of the FIA World Endurance Championship which took place last Sunday in Bahrain, Valentino Rossi had the opportunity to try the Oreca LMP2 for the first time.
On the Sakhir track the ‘Doctor’ had already arrived to enjoy the 8h that concluded the 2023 season on Saturday and the following day he sat on the 07-Gibson of Team WRT fresh from the title won by Robert Kubica, Rui Andrade and Louis Delétraz in the second category of prototypes.
Rossi shared the wheel with his teammate Charles Weerts of the car on which he immediately applied the inevitable #46 on the side, putting together 38 laps in the morning with a 1’55″728 as best time and improving in the afternoon 1’55″118 completing 67 laps.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
#46 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson: Valentino Rossi
“The car is beautiful, very fun and very fast, even if I expected it to be different. It’s really demanding to drive, very technical, especially when braking”, explains the driver from Tavullia who dropped out of LMP2.
“You always have to brake cleanly because if you try to do it at the limit you always end up locking both the front and the rear, as we don’t have ABS.”
“Compared to the GT3s, which have it, everything changes, such as the weight and aerodynamics, but for this very reason it is also much faster and with greater grip, so you can push much more. All of this is a lot of fun “.
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