Weerts and Van der Linde Sweep Both Races at Misano

Text: Rick Kiewiet

Images: SRO

Team WRT's Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde left Misano with a maximum haul, winning both Sprint Cup races on home soil for reigning MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who had to make do with a maiden pole and a pair of frustrating results in the #46 BMW. Weerts extended his record tally of series victories to 20 across the weekend and, together with Van der Linde, took over the championship lead from Lionspeed GP's Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus.

Race 1

Rossi set the tone on Friday by taking his first-ever GTWC Europe pole in the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, lapping in 1m32.154s to beat Feller's #80 Lionspeed Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo by 0.141s. Andrea Frassineti came within a tenth in the #66 Tresor Attempto Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to claim Silver honours and second overall, while Fabian Schiller took Bronze pole in the #12 GetSpeed Team Dubai Mercedes-AMG despite a track-limits penalty. The second part of the session was red-flagged after Dennis Marschall's #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari clipped Felix Hirsiger's #71 AF Corse machine on an outlap, a coming-together that left Marschall with a five-place grid drop.

The Saturday evening race turned on the opening seconds. Weerts, starting fourth in the #32 BMW, got a superb launch, while Feller attempted to split front-row starters Rossi and Frassineti. Contact between the two Italian-liveried cars followed, sending Frassineti's Audi into Marvin Dienst's #87 Winward Mercedes-AMG before spinning into the path of Dani Juncadella's #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG, eliminating both cars on the spot and triggering the safety car.

Weerts built a comfortable lead once racing resumed, with Rossi held up behind the Bronze pairing of Dienst and Schiller before a 10-second penalty for jumping the start further compromised the home favorite. Team WRT's stop sent Van der Linde out in the lead, while the best pit work of the race promoted Buus to second ahead of Maro Engel's #48 Winward Mercedes. A late full-course yellow for Romain Andriolo's beached #555 CSA Racing McLaren ran to the flag, sealing a 19.65-second win for Weerts and Van der Linde over Feller and Buus. Thierry Vermeulen and Ben Green completed a quiet run to fourth in the #69 Emil Frey Ferrari, just ahead of Gold Cup winners Dylan Pereira and Alex Aka in the #99 Tresor Attempto Audi, while Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro took Silver honors for WRT and Schiller's GetSpeed crew claimed Bronze after Dienst lost time to a technical issue.

Race 2

Sunday morning belonged to Jules Gounon, deputizing for the unwell Chris Lulham in the #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG. Gounon snatched pole with a 1m32.017s lap, just 0.057s clear of Van der Linde's #32 BMW, which was fined rather than penalized for an unsafe release. Kobe Pauwels put the #7 Comtoyou Aston Martin third, comfortably the car's best Sprint result of the year, while the championship-leading #80 Lionspeed Porsche could only qualify 13th.

Gounon held the lead from the start and kept Van der Linde within a second for the opening stint, with Max Hesse's #46 WRT BMW briefly in the mix before fading. The race swung on the pit stops: Gounon and Van der Linde came in nose-to-tail, but WRT's mechanics turned the #32 BMW around fastest to send Weerts out ahead of Juncadella, who had taken over from Gounon. From there, Weerts controlled the second stint, with Rossi running third until Lucas Auer, who set the fastest lap of the afternoon in the #48 Winward Mercedes, hunted him down and completed a pass with less than a minute remaining to snatch the final podium spot.

Weerts crossed the line 2.97 seconds clear of Juncadella and Gounon, securing a record-extending 20th Sprint Cup win and, alongside Van der Linde, a 14-point championship lead. Feller and Buus failed to add to their tally after Buus was handed a 10-second penalty for spinning Patric Niederhauser's Rutronik Lamborghini, leaving Feller 20th. Aka and Pereira completed a Gold Cup double in the #99 Audi, Aurélien Panis and Anthony Bartone took Silver for GetSpeed Team Bartone Bros, and Rinat Salikhov and Marvin Dienst turned Bronze honours around for Winward Racing. GTWC Europe now heads to Magny-Cours for round five at the end of July, with Weerts and Van der Linde arriving as the team to beat.