Weerts, Vanthoor Dominate Opening Race at Misano

Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor continued their excellent Misano form by dominating the first Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup race of the weekend.

The No. 32 Team WRT Audi pair notched up their fourth consecutive victory together at the Italian circuit, and their sixth in total, with a strong combined drive from pole.

Vanthoor took the checkered flag 5.6 seconds ahead of title rival Raffaele Marciello in the second-placed No. 89 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Weerts and Vanthoor arrived at Misano half a point ahead of Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy at the top of the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup standings, but moved to six points clear courtesy of their maximum points score on Saturday.

Weerts commanded the opening stint, which had an interrupted start after a first-lap accident at Quercia resulted in an early safety car period.

The No. 25 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Aurelien Panis was turned around by Eddie Cheever’s Sky-Tempesta Racing Mercedes-AMG, and Panis was then hit by the unsighted AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Hugo Delacour.

Weerts controlled the restart after eight and a half minutes and extended his advantage over Vincent Abril in the second-placed JP Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3, while Boguslavskiy worked hard to defend third from Silver Cup leader Thomas Neubauer.

The WRT Audi led by 4.5 seconds when Abril pitted at the first opportunity after 25 minutes, and a solid 65-second stop shortly after kept the front-running No. 32 car ahead.

JP Motorsport, however, had an extremely slow 78-second driver and tire change which dropped Abril and Dennis Lind down to eighth.

It also promoted the No. 89 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG to second, and presented Marciello with the task of breaking down Vanthoor’s six-second cushion.

Despite some quick early-stint laps from Marciello, the two brand factory drivers largely canceled each other out over the remaining 30 minutes.

Neubauer and Benjamin Goethe had an impressive race to complete the overall podium and claim the Silver Cup class victory in their Gulf-liveried No. 30 WRT Audi, which finished 10.7 seconds behind the winner.

Goethe came under intense pressure from Christopher Haase in the final laps but managed to hold off the factory status driver of the No. 11 Tresor by Car Collection Audi.

Haase shared fourth with Simon Gachet, while Attempto Racing’s No. 66 Audi pairing of Pieter Schothorst and Dennis Marschall claimed fifth.

WRT’s No. 33 Audi driven by Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and Christopher Mies was sixth, after a second-half battle with the delayed JP Motorsport McLaren.

Mies and Dennis Lind in the JP McLaren exchanged places a couple of times with the Audi works driver ultimately coming out on top, while Lind finished seventh on the road only for his car to be handed a 10-second penalty for an unsafe pit release.

That relegated the No. 112 McLaren to 14th and outside the overall points.

It was a tough afternoon for JP Motorsport, which saw its Pro-Am machine retire after contact with the GSM Novamarine Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

The Pro-Am victory went to another McLaren: the No. 188 Garage 59 example driven by Miguel Ramos and Dean MacDonald, who dominated from pole and took the Sprint Cup class points lead in the process.

AF Corse’s No. 53 Ferrari of Pierre-Alexandre Jean and Ulysse de Pauw was fifth outright after the pit stops, but the latter driver fell back to ninth in the second stint.

But that position later became eighth when the JP Motorsport penalty was applied. 

Jules Gounon and Jim Pla progressed in the other direction, meanwhile, after their No. 88 Mercedes-AMG was sent to the back of the grid after Akkodis ASP sent the wrong driver out for qualifying.

Gounon made up a handful of places in the first stint, before staying out until the end of the 10-minute pit window and handing over to Pla, who ended up inside the top 10.

Valentino Rossi ran well in 13th during the opening half but left-front damage to his No. 46 Audi, reportedly after contact, caused the Italian and Frederic Vervisch to retire.

GSM Novamarine also failed to finish after its side-on contact with the Pro-Am JP Motorsport McLaren, while the No. 99 Attempto Audi picked up early damage that ended its day.

Qualifying for Sunday’s 60-minute race takes place at 9 a.m. CEST (3 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Misano Race 1