The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup championship held two races at the Misano circuit in Italy on the weekend of July 17th-20th, and BMW came away with four podiums and a win between the two races.
In race one, Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello were the stars of the show. Rossi has a strong fan base in Italy from the days when he dominated Moto GTP racing, and he lives nearby. He had his career best qualifying effort in Sprint Cup for race one, setting the third fastest time in the #46 M4 GT3 EVO behind a pair of Ferraris.
Valentino Rossi (left) and Raffaele Marciello celebrate their race one win.
Rossi held his position during his stint before handing over to Marciello, who fought with the Ferrari driven by Vincent Abril. Marciello eventually passed the Ferrari with just five minutes left in the race to take the victory. It was the third win in three years for Rossi and BMW M Team WRT at Misano and the first series win for Marciello since joining BMW. “It was a very good weekend,” said Rossi. “We won a race, and just having a win on the board changes the whole season. Racing with Raffaele is a pleasure – he did an amazing job. The car was also very strong.”
BMW had two other podium finishes in race one. The #32 WRT BMW of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde finished on the podium in third overall and in the Pro class, and Dan Harper and Darren Leung finished on the podium in second in the Bronze Cup class.
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- Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde scored third and fifth place finishes to retain the Pro Cup points lead.
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- Darren Leung and Dan Harper finished second in the Bronze Cup class in race one.
Things didn’t go quite as well for BMW in race two. The race was red-flagged and stopped for more than two hours, but Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde climbed up from fifteenth position to fifth to retain their lead in the Sprint Cup driver standings. The #46 BMW of Rossi and Marciello was once again in contention for a win before Marciello had to serve a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane. They ultimately finished in 21st overall.
Giles Stadsbader and Gustav Bergstrom finished third in the Silver Cup class in race two.
The sole podium finish for a BMW in race two came from the #30 Team WRT BMW of Gustav Bergström and Gilles Stadsbader, who finished on the Silver Cup class podium in third. The #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW of Jens Klingmann and Al Faisal Al Zubair, which has been so successful this year, had a bad weekend. Klingmann qualified second in the Gold Cup class for race one but was involved in a crash at the start and had to retire. That collision also resulted in a ten-place grid penalty for race two. The duo is now second in Gold Cup driver points.
The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup series will travel to the Magny-Cours circuit in France next for a pair of races on the weekend of July 31st-August 3rd. The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup series will race next at the Nurburgring on August 29th-31st.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
