WRT and Garage 59 win the GTWC Europe races at Misano

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup double header at Misano saw not only WRT win with their part time entry on Saturday, the No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello, but also saw a Sunday race marked by a long red flag due to a big accident, a three way fight for the win and the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer, with the last win for the British manufacturer in the Sprint Cup dating back from 2016.
 
Under the Saturday sunset, the first race started with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari had to barge its way to the lead, which was the calmest part of the grid, as 43 cars passing through the twisty first sector of Misano is a magnet for trouble, and this soon was proved as various cars, with the panel banging eliminating the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari and the No. 777 Al Manar BMW, while also leaving other cars with varying degrees of damage, which called a brief Safety Car period.
 
With the No. 1 GRT Lamborghini being pit maneuvered to the barriers, the race was neutralized again, and once it was under green flag again, Dennis Marchall wasn’t too eager of staying behind Alessio Rovera, despite the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari already having a comfortable lead in the Bronze Cup while being surrounded by Pro Cup cars.
 
The minimum pit time essentially took the No. 74 out of the top contender equation once the window opened, so the No. 51 was completely exposed to the No. 46 WRT BMW, with the No. 32 WRT BMW in third to help in the attack if Kelvin van der Linde was able to close down the gap. Traffic played a part in slowing down Vincent Abril, and when Raffaele Marciello had the opportunity, he didn’t miss it, putting the No. 46 in front of the No. 51.
 
In the end, Abril didn’t have the pace to fight back Marciello, and this decided the race in favor of the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo, which was an immense feat considering that Rossi expected a podium at best when he delivered the car to Marciello at the pit window.
 
GTWC Europe - Misano Race 1 results
 
The No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren took Gold Cup honors comfortably, with the No. 99 Attempto Audi winning in similar fashion the Silver Cup, and just outside the overall top 15, the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari commanded the Bronze Cup from green to checkered.
 

On Sunday morning, it was the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren leading from the pole position, although Marvin Kirchhöfer had trouble to hold the grunt of the No. 46 WRT BMW, all while the No. 48 Winward Mercedes was approaching the leaders and bringing more cars to the battle.
 
With nearly 15 minutes of racing, a horrific crash happened when the No. 1 GRT Lamborghini was sent to the barriers by the No. 991 Paradine BMW, with the Lamborghini becoming a fire ball once it hit the armco, though Georgi Doncew was able to leave the burnt car on his own power once it came to a halt after a second impact from the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, but with the impact destroying the barriers, the race had to be red flagged to take care of the mangled parts of the armco. The problem was that no materials were in place for armco replacement, so tire stacks were put in front of the damaged barrier, and after a lenghty inspection by race director Niels Wittich and the SRO officials, the race was finally allowed to continue with the ammeding measure done.
 
The remaining 10 minutes of the first stint saw no position changes at the top of the pile, with both WRT and Garage 59 bringing their cars at the same time, with Winward Racing bringing the No. 48 a lap later, though Lucas Auer had the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari to worry about as Patric Niederhauser nearly forced an overtake and Alessio Rovera approached fast due to the battle for third.
 
Wanting to compensate for the early exit on Saturday, Chris Lulham became the fastest driver of the second stint, but the move of the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari on the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi only came with 13 minutes to go, taking the Gold Cup and putting a sturdy defense for the top position in class.
 
Around the same time, the No. 46 was penalized with a drive through due to pit lane speeding, as Raffaele Marciello accelerated without the pit limiter being activated, crossing the line over the limit until he was forced to brake due to the No. 59 car being in front.
 
With the No. 46 penalized, the problem for Benjamin Goethe was another, as Lucas Auer was all over his McLaren and wanting to overtake, but 10 minutes weren’t enough to dethrone the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren, with Benjamin Goethe not giving an inch of possibility to Lucas Auer.
 
GTWC Europe - Misano Race 2 results
 
After winning the battle with the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi, the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari just went straight to the Gold Cup win as Chris Lulham opened 10 seconds to Paul Evrard. Behind them, the No. 21 Comtoyou Aston Martin won the Silver Cup with half a second to the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes, while the No. 85 Imperiale Lamborghini had a more comfortable win in the Bronze Cup.
 
Weerts and van der Linde (No. 32) lead the Sprint Cup standings with 53 points while Auer and Engel (No. 48) have 52, the same number for Goethe and Kirchhöfer (No. 59), while Müller and Niederhauser (No. 96) are the immediate outsiders with 45.5 points. The battle for the Sprint Cup title continues at Magny-Cours on 2 and 3 August.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP