Rossi, Marciello Win Misano Race 1

Raffaele Marciello completed a late-race overtake on Vincent Abril to take victory in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup Race 1 at Misano, giving co-driver Valentino Rossi a third win in as many years at his home circuit.

Marciello wrestled the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO past Abril’s No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 at Turn 12 with six minutes remaining, then going on to open up a gap of 1.580 seconds at the checkered flag.

As a result, co-driver Rossi, who took the start from third and maintained that position going into the mandatory pitstop cycle, took victory at Misano for the third consecutive year. His previous two wins, also with WRT, came alongside Maxime Martin.

Marciello, for his part, used his cameo appearance to return to winning ways in Sprint Cup for the first time since Race 1 at Valencia in 2023, when he was still a Mercedes-AMG factory driver and driving alongside Timur Boguslavskiy at Akkodis ASP Team.

WRT, for its part, picked up a second consecutive overall Sprint Cup victory after Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde won in Race 2 at Zandvoort back in May.

The No. 51 Ferrari led the opening stint with Rovera maintaining the lead from pole position ahead of the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Dennis Marschall.

Rovera also kept Marschall at bay after the race restarted following an early safety car triggered by a multi-car incident that involved the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in the hands of Maxime Martin, No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari of Chris Lulham and the No. 777 Al Manar Racing by WRT BMW driven by Jens Klingmann.

Lulham and Klingmann retired, while the No. 9 Mercedes-AMG would rejoin to finish 20th overall.

After the pitstops, with the No. 74 Ferrari out of the overall podium fight after Bronze-rated Dustin Blattner took over, newly installed Marciello rapidly closed on Abril before making the decisive pass late on.

Behind Abril, the second Team WRT BMW of Van der Linde and Weerts completed the podium, having jumped from sixth to third during the pitstops.

Winward Racing’s No. 48 Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel finished fourth after the latter completed a late overtake on the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Sven Mueller and Patric Niederhauser initially finished fifth, but were amongst a number of cars in the top ten to receive a ten-second penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement.

Also penalized were the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

As a result, Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhoefer were classified fifth in the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren, with the Silver Cup-winning No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Ezequiel Perez Companc and Alex Aka promoted to sixth.

Mueller and Niederhauser dropped to seventh, ahead of the No. 14 Ferrari, No. 63 Lamborghini and No. 58 McLaren, with the latter still winning Gold Cup in tenth overall.

Marshall and Blattner, meanwhile, finished 15th overall to take the Bronze Cup victory for Kessel Racing.

RESULTS: Race 1