Rossi, BMW and McLaren win at Misano, heavy crash for #1 GRT Lamborghini

Text: Rick Kiewiet Images: SRO

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup returned to Misano World Circuit for a weekend featuring two 60-minute races. Team WRT extended their success at the Italian venue in Race 1 as Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello secured victory in the #46 BMW M4 GT3 Evo, while Race 2 saw Garage 59 and McLaren claim their first series win since 2016 thanks to Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe. Both wins were highly contested and had plenty of incidents to spice up the races.

Race 1

Starting from third on the grid, Rossi held his position through the opening laps while pole-sitter Alessio Rovera in the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari led the early stages. The race was briefly neutralized by an early safety car following a multi-car incident, but the order at the front remained stable when racing resumed. Meanwhile, Dennis Marschall’s #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari – running in Bronze Cup – showed strong pace but was hindered by a mandatory minimum pit stop time.

As the mandatory pit window opened, both the leading Ferrari and BMW completed their stops almost simultaneously, with Team WRT’s pit crew just edging out their rivals by 0.1 seconds. When Raffaele Marciello took over the BMW, he set about reducing the gap to Vincent Abril in the Ferrari. Marciello’s pace climbed steadily, eventually allowing him to close to less than a second behind Abril with just under ten minutes remaining.

In the closing stages, Marciello made a decisive move at Turn 12, slipping past Abril to claim the lead. From there, he steadily pulled away, crossing the finish line 1.580 seconds clear. The victory marked Marciello’s maiden Sprint Cup win with BMW, while Rossi celebrated his third consecutive Misano triumph, all achieved with Team WRT.

Completing the podium were Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde in the #32 Team WRT BMW, who gained crucial ground during the pit stops to climb from seventh to third. Fourth place went to the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, who recovered impressively from 15th on the grid, with Engel overtaking the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche in the final laps. Sven Müller and Patric Niederhauser finished initially fifth in the #96 Porsche but were later handed penalties (see below). The #59 Garage 59 McLaren of Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer completed the top six after starting from 26th and delivering a brilliant opening lap.

The Silver Cup victory went to Ezequiel Perez Companc and Alex Aka in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, who secured their second class win of the season, while the Bronze Cup honours were claimed by Dennis Marschall and Dustin Blattner in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, who finished 15th overall.

The Gold Cup battle was shaken up early when the first two starters – the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari and #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW – were forced to retire following an opening lap collision.

Post-race penalties

Following the race, a number of cars received 10-second time penalties for Full Course Yellow infringements. The affected teams included the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche, #14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, #63 Grasser Racing Lamborghini, and #58 Garage 59 McLaren. These penalties promoted the #99 Tresor Attempto Audi to sixth overall and shuffled several cars down the order accordingly. Additionally, the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin was given a five-second penalty for track limits violations, adjusting its Silver Cup placing and elevating the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi to second in class.

Race 2

Sunday’s Race 2 at Misano brought a new winner to the top step as Garage 59 secured McLaren’s first GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup victory since 2016. Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe guided the #59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo to the win after a race that included a lengthy red flag period following a serious accident.

Starting from pole, Kirchhöfer fended off early pressure from the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello in the opening laps. However, the race was halted 15 minutes in after a dramatic accident involving Georgi Donczew’s #1 GRT Grasser Racing Lamborghini, which caught fire following heavy barrier contact. Donczew escaped unharmed, but repairs to the damaged barriers delayed the race for over two hours.

When racing resumed behind the safety car, Kirchhöfer maintained control until the mid-race pit stops. Benjamin Goethe took over and defended fiercely against Lucas Auer’s #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, who steadily closed the gap in the closing stages. Goethe held firm to win by just 0.517 seconds, delivering McLaren’s first Sprint Cup victory since 2016 and his own maiden overall series win.

Team WRT’s hopes of a weekend double were dashed when the #46 BMW, now driven by Valentino Rossi, was handed a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding, dropping the car to 21st.

The final podium spot went to the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sven Müller and Patric Niederhauser, with the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari and the #32 Team WRT BMW of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde rounding out the top five.

Lucas Auer and Maro Engel’s late charge earned fourth for Winward Racing, while the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG of Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin secured sixth, marking their best result of the season.

In class battles, Emil Frey Racing returned to the top of the Gold Cup podium with Chris Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen in the #69 Ferrari, narrowly defeating Paul Evrard’s #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi. The Silver Cup win went to Comtoyou Racing’s Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels in the #21 Aston Martin, who fought back from a challenging start to take victory by a slim margin over the #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG.

Bronze Cup honours were claimed by Dmitry Gvazava and Loris Spinelli in the #85 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, finishing well clear of their nearest rivals.

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup now moves quickly to its next round, with the penultimate event scheduled at Magny-Cours in just 10 days. Teams and drivers will be looking to build on their Misano performances as the championship battle continues to take shape.