Valentino Rossi took victory in the opening race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint powered by AWS at Misano in Italy. Racing at his home circuit, Rossi brought the Team WRT BMW home just ahead of the sister Team WRT BMW of Charles Weerts who pressured Rossi all the way to the chequered flag finishing just 0.275 seconds ahead of Weerts in the #32 BMW.
It was Rossi’s teammate Maxime Martin who started from pole position and he held the lead all the way to the pitstops and did enough for Rossi to hold on to the lead after all the stops shook out. However Rossi didn’t have an easy run to the end with Weerts pushing him hard over the whole stint with no team orders evident.
Third place went to the #60 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Giacomo Altoe who finished some 15 seconds behind the front two.
There was further silverware for Team WRT who picked up the Silver class win with Sam de Haan bringing the #30 BMW home in sixth place overall and first in class ahead of Sean Hudsputh in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari who was way down the order in P18.
Victory in the Gold Cup went the way of Gilles Magnus in the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi who finished in P13 overall ahead of Luca Engstler in the LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler by One Group Audi who finished in P21 just 0.2 of a second ahead of the Charlie Eastwood in the #51 Racing Team Turkey Ferrari.
Phillip Sager in the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche took the win in the Bronze Cup finishing in P14 overall, 3.118 seconds ahead of second placed Dmitry Gvazava in the #85 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini.
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