Akkodis ASP and WRT score Misano wins in GTWC Europe

The visit to Misano saw contrasting races for FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe, with the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo staying firm in first place on Saturday while the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 depended of pit stops and a combination of factors to win in Race 2 on Sunday.
 
Race 1 started with the No. 159 Garage 59 McLaren being turned around in the direction of the No. 126 Imperiale Lamborghini, basically taking both cars out as they limped back to the pits to tend the damage suffered. At the top end of the field, Raffaele Marciello was establishing a gap between the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes and the No. 14 Emil Frey Ferrari, while Henrique Chaves was doing a superb job keeping the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren in third overall while leading the debuting Bronze Cup.
 
Marciello opted to stay longer on track than the opposition to keep the No. 14 out of the tail of the No. 88, and Timur Boguslavskiy was sent on track with nearly 10 seconds ahead to manage after the pit window, and with only two seconds lost over the remaining 25 minutes, the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes was able to secure victory.
 
GTWCE Misano - Race 1 results
 
Despite the 42 car grid present at Misano, the class winners kept themselves quite close to the overall top-10, with the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Audi winning the Gold Cup isolated in sixth, the No. 77 HRT Mercedes winning the Silver Cup from 12th position and the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren naturally dropping the order but winning the Bronze Cup just behind the No. 77.
 

In Race 2 WRT didn’t have much of the inconveniences about traffic that hampered them in Race 1, with the No. 32 BMW leading the way while the No. 46 car was pressing the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi to get second place.
 
Things were quite peaceful until the No. 112 JP McLaren get damage from a spin and an intra-team blunder from Boutsen VDS send the No. 9 Audi straight to the barriers after a four-wide battle for position, which brought a full course yellow and then the Safety Car. Cars were released at the start of the pit window, with WRT bringing in its leading cars early for the mandatory stop, and while they had an unusual hiccup with the No. 32, the Belgian team still saved itself by doing it right with the No. 46, beating not only the sister car but also the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi.
 
A rather nostalgic scene was on display during the second stint phase of the race as Valentino Rossi was leading the way at Misano, although in a GT3 now rather than a MotoGP bike, and more surprisingly was that the Italian was opening the gap to the No. 11 Comtoyou Audi of Lucas Legeret by having the fastest lap of the race being followed by a string of fast laps during the early minutes of the stint.
 
After the initial push, Rossi kept the No. 46 WRT BMW within 5 seconds ahead of the No. 11 Comtoyou Audi, more than enough so he and Maxime Martin could celebrate an important win for the car and for Rossi at home soil.
 
GTWCE Misano - Race 2 results
 
WRT also celebrated a win in the Gold Cup with the No. 30 BMW, which wasn’t threatened during the whole race, with the No. 99 Tresor Audi winning the Silver Cup just behind it, while the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren being the only car that made a full class sweep with the second Bronze Cup win of the weekend by narrowly beating the No. 911 Pure Porsche.
 
The GTWC Europe Sprint Cup table still has the Marciello/Boguslavskiy duo on top with 47 points, while Rossi and Martin join Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts with 30.5 points on the WRT chase to the leaders while having the Drudi/Feller duo from Tresor in fourth with 29 points.
 
Next stop for the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup is Hockenheim, set for 2 and 3 September.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/TWENTY-ONE CREATION/Jules Benichou, Patrick Hecq