GT World Challenge Europe Misano: WRT wins night Race 1 after start crash takes out front row

Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts won Saturday night’s GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup Race 1 at Misano in the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Weerts emerged from the opening-lap accident involving pole-sitter Valentino Rossi and fellow front-row starter Andrea Frassineti. Van der Linde completed a dominant victory, while a later penalty dropped Rossi and Max Hesse to sixth.

Weerts escapes opening-lap chaos

From third on the grid, Ricardo Feller attempted to send the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R between front-row starters Rossi in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 and Andrea Frassineti in the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3. Contact followed, eliminating Frassineti and also catching Dani Juncadella in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. The Spaniard spun spectacularly across the front straight, with the rest of the field narrowly avoiding his stricken car.

The damage also ended the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi’s weekend, ruling Frassineti and co-pilot Ariel Levi out of Sunday’s Race 2.

Weerts emerged from the incident in the lead and quickly began to pull clear after the race went green again. Marvin Dienst ran second in the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, ahead of Fabian Schiller in the #12 GetSpeed Team Dubai Mercedes-AMG GT3. Both were competing in the Bronze Cup and faced longer mandatory pit stops before handing over to their Am-rated teammates.

Rossi continued in fourth, closely followed by Lucas Auer in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. Auer remained within striking distance but was unable to pass the hometown favourite during the opening stint.

Van der Linde extends WRT advantage

Once the pit-stop window opened, Van der Linde took over from Weerts and extended the #32 BMW’s lead to 19.659 seconds by the chequered flag.

Behind him, Bastian Buus brought the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R home in second after a later and faster pit stop moved him and Feller just ahead of the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Auer and Maro Engel. Buus then held off Engel in the closing stages before the race finished under Full Course Yellow to recover the stranded #555 CSA Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Romain Andriolo.

Further back, Thierry Vermeulen and Ben Green finished fourth in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Dylan Pereira and Alex Aka followed in fifth overall, taking Gold Cup victory in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3.

Rossi and Hesse eventually finished sixth after the #46 Team WRT BMW received a 10-second time penalty for starting from outside the grid boxes. Amaury Cordeel and Jordan Pepper took seventh in the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, ahead of Christopher Haase and Simon Reicher in the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3.

Thomas Neubauer and Arthur Leclerc finished ninth in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, while Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro completed the overall top 10 and won the Silver Cup in the #30 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.

Electrical trouble decides Bronze Cup

Meanwhile, the Bronze Cup fight began with Dienst and Schiller running second and third overall before continuing through the pit-stop phase.

The battle appeared to swing towards the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 after Dienst handed over to Rinat Salikhov, but electrical problems cost the pair the class lead.

As a result, Schiller and Gabriel Rindone inherited the Bronze Cup victory in the #12 GetSpeed Team Dubai Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Dienst and Salikhov finished second in class.

Full Race 1 results