GTWC Paul Ricard: BMW dominates ahead of Lamborghini, Rossi fourth

The first endurance race of the GT World Challenge Europe 2024 is won by BMW, ahead of Lamborghini and Mercedes. Fourth place for the crew of Valentino Rossi

Alessandro Follis

April 7 – 8.22pm – MILAN

The 2024 GT World Challenge Endurance season starts like the last one: it’s started again BMW wins and this time he is also doing it with the Rowe Racing team. Car #998 Of Augusto Farfus, Daniel Harper and Max Hesse he was the protagonist of a perfect race and always on the attack: he won Lamborghini #63 of Iron Lynx started from pole position in the second hour of the race and was not moved by anyone again. A good second place for all Italian workers included Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoliwhile climbing to the third stage of the podium Gounon, Schiller and Stolz on Mercedes #2 for GetSpeed. Fourth place instead of crew BMW M4 GT3 #46 from Wrt: Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin and Raffaele Marciello they were the protagonists of a strong and intense race, with a good comeback for the Italian-Swiss capable of gaining a place in the final corner. the best of Ferrari is the #51 of Rovera, Rigon and Pier Guidininth overall, but the Prancing Horse cars got one twice in the Bronze class.

Many obstacles

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The first hour of the match was characterized by several disagreements, including safety car e Full Course Yellow, for some accidents involving, among other cars, the McLaren #159 of Garage 59 and the BMW #32 of Wrt: the latter lost a large part of the bodywork on the left rear following a puncture and contact with the Ferrari #51. Lamborghini #63, which started from pole with Bortolotti, maintained its position at the front Porsche #22 of Ayhancan Güven and the BMW #998 of Augusto Farfus, while behind them Alessio Rovera recovered from tenth to fifth place in the first hour of the race. Maxime Martin, who started sixth, moved up to fourth before handing over the wheel to Valentino Rossi. After the stops came the first twist: Schumacher’s Porsche Clrt, behind the lead with Boccolacci at the wheel, had to stop again to separate the cable that had caught during the stop and slid to last. Thus, Andrea Caldarelli regained the top position in the Lamborghini ahead of the #998 BMW. Daniel Harper and #98 by Nick Yellowly. The pace of the German cars seemed to be better and Britain’s Harper took the lead, later he was able to extend his lead to more than four seconds. Valentino Rossimeanwhile, he returned to seventh but had to give way to the #64 Ford Mustang and the #99 Audi for a long comeback, handing the car to Marciello in eighth.

Many wars

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The second round of stations saw Max Hesse returns to the lead on BMW #998 and immediately go to Lamborghini #63 of Matteo Cairoli. Behind the leading duo, the Mercedes #2 of Luca Stolz completed a smooth and faultless race. Many battles broke out under the podium, and BMW’s Raffaele Marciello in great evidence: he managed to regain some positions by successively passing the #51 Ferrari of Pier Guidi, the #99 Audi of Haase and the #97 Porsche of Müller on the very last lap, finishing fourth. The new is in points Aston Martin Vantageseventh, ahead of Pure Rxcing Porsche in eighth, Ferrari #51 in ninth and Ford Mustang in tenth place.

Other classes

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In addition to the general classification, GT World Challenge Europe also includes three additional classes based on the level of experience and speed of the drivers. In the category Gold he wonAudi R8 #25 of Saintéloc with Evrard-Pla-Magnus, ahead of Al Manar Racing Mercedes #777 of Al Zubair-Baumann-Grenier and another Csa Racing Audi #111 of Carton-Eteki-Rougier. Mercedes hat-trick in class Moneytogether with Number 57 in the Tournament of Champions (Sathienthirakul-Arrow-Caresani) ahead of #10 of Boutsen Vds (Meyuhas-Gazeau-Panis) and #90 of Madpanda Motorsport (Perez Companc-Assenheimer). at the end, Ferrari twice in the Bronze class: success to Number 8 in the Kessel Championship (Rosi-Schirò-Fumanelli) ahead of #52 of AF Corse (Machiels-Machiels-Bertolini) and all’Aston Martin #11 of Comtoyou Racing (de Wilde-Pauwels-van Uitert).