Weerts, Vanthoor Take Lights-to-Flag Misano Race 2 Win

Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor took a lights-to-flag Race 2 win to complete a weekend sweep for Team WRT in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup round at Misano.

Vanthoor, driving the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3, crossed the line 1.963 seconds clear of the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo during the second of Saturday’s 60-minute races in Italy.

As a result, Weerts and Vanthoor became the first repeat winners of the 2024 campaign, having previously triumphed during the season opener at Brands Hatch.

After finishing second earlier on Saturday, Weerts took the start and kept Lucas Auer at bay for the opening stint in order to lead into the pitstop window.

Vanthoor rejoined the track ahead of the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG now in the hands of Maro Engel, although the German soon found himself under pressure from Race 1 winner Maxime Martin.

The No. 46 Team WRT BMW had started the race fifth with Valentino Rossi at the wheel, but the Italian fought his way into fourth by passing the No. 111 CSA Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Simon Gachet before pitting.

The Belgian squad then leapfrogged the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 to move into third, which allowed Martin to increase the pressure on Engel for second place.

However, the German managed to keep Martin at bay for the rest of the race, preventing WRT from claiming a second consecutive 1-2 finish.

The No. 46 BMW finished 0.589 seconds behind Engel, with Thierry Vermeulen just over a second back in fourth place aboard the No. 69 Ferrari.

Sven Mueller completed the top five aboard the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R he shared with Patrick Niederhauser, with Tom Gamble and Ben Green sixth and seventh.

Ezequiel Perez Companc finished eighth aboard the No. 90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, while Boutsen VDS driver Jules Gounon and Calan Williams’ No. 30 Team WRT BMW rounded out the top ten.

Williams and co-driver Sam de Haan secured a Silver Cup clean sweep with back-to-back class wins, while Magnus and Lucas Legeret won Gold Cup for CSA Racing in eleventh overall.

Bronze Cup, meanwhile, was won by the No. 93 Sky-Tempesta Racing Ferrari of Jonathan Hui and Eddie Cheever.

RESULTS: Race 2