Belgian outfit WRT knows a thing or two about racing in the front in FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe, being on it since the start, and the pair of wins at Misano for the No. 32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts proves this, as they made use of good pace and pitwork prowess to outpace the competition.
It was a full Audi front row in Race 1 to dictate things, with only the leader No. 32 WRT Audi and the chasing No. 163 Emil Frey Lamborghini escaping contact, while the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi barged its way back to contention after a quick drop from second. Leo Russel decided to give some trouble to Albert Costa, but the Spaniard was keen on chasing Charles Weerts, leaving the Frenchman in third place to chase the Belgian.
Everybody was getting pretty physical in order to settle in a position, with the worst being left for the No. 911 Allied Porsche, and later for the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 20 SPS Mercedes, bring the first yellow flag period. Under green flag again, the chase resumed as Costa was still seeing Weerts’ rear wing, and this was the trend until the pit window.
Back from the pits, the No. 32 was still leading but had the No. 6 TokSport Mercedes behind, and with 40 minutes of racing, contact was still being the end result of rough battles, taking outthe No. 107 CMR Bentley and the No. 159 Garage 59 Aston Martin after a coming together in the last corner, bringing the second yellow flag period.
Despite the best efforts from Maro Engel to try to put the No. 6 ahead, Dries Vanthoor kept the No. 32 WRT Audi in the commanding position it was, flying the Belgian flag at the top of the podium.
GTWC Europe - Misano Race 1 results
The Silver Cup had the No. 87 AKKA-ASP Mercedes surviving the attack from the Emil Frey army, which lasted until the mid of the final lap, and conquered the class. Pro-Am Cup honors went to the No. 77 Barwell Lamborghini, one of the few cars of the class that escaped argy-bargy moments during the whole hour.
Race 2 had an unusual front row in the No. 33 Rinaldi Ferrari and the No. 188 Garage 59 Aston Martin, which had the upper hand and secured a tight lead thanks to the cramped Misano circuit as the immediate opponents had nothing much to do than follow the faster line.
Things were working well for Garage 59 with Johnny Adam at the wheel, as he was opening the gap to the No. 33, with the Ferrari also having the No. 32 WRT Audi all over its back wing waiting for an opening, but with the fact that all three class leaders were in the top-3, no one was exactly eager to take risks into unnecessary engagements, so it took roughly 20 minutes for Dries Vanthoor to overtake Patrick Kujala for second, more than enough time for Johnny Adam to marginally go away with the lead.
The idea for the No. 188 was to have Adam drive as much possible to think on the possibility of be in contention, as pace and pitwork rules would work against the Aston Martin, so the British driver only delivered it to Alexander West at the very end of the pit window, but they were still outpaced not only by the No. 32’s speed on track, but also for WRT’s quick action in the pits.
In the end, the No. 32 got the lead while having the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes on the chase, and the No. 188 tumbled down to 12th place while still leading the Pro-Am Cup ahead of the No. 20 SPS Mercedes.
Charles Weerts’ first laps were on full power, clocking as much fast laps as possible, which secured a 10 second gap to the No. 88, and with this the Belgian just had to not put a wheel wrong to bring another one for the No. 32 WRT Audi.
GTWC Europe - Misano Race 2 results
The No. 31 WRT Audi gave more reason to Yves Weerts and Vincent Vosse to smile, as it conquered the Silver Cup and narrowly missed the overall podium despite some mistakes during the race, including full speed gravel surfing, but the actual stars of the show were in the Pro-Am Cup, with Alexander West almost losing the class win as the No. 20 SPS Mercedes closed down so much that the No. 188 Garage 59 Aston Martin actually won it by 0.001 seconds after basically being in the defensive for half of the final lap.
The most Belgian WRT entry made its way to the top, with Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts leading both the Sprint Cup and the overall GTWCE standings, having the company of Raffaele Marciello in second.
From now on the focus is only one, the 24 Hours of Spa, which along with being the third Endurance Cup round, is the sixth GTWC Europe race and the start of the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge calendar, all on 31 July and 1 August.
PHOTOS: SRO/Patrick Hecq, Dirk Bogaerts
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