A commanding BMW victory on Saturday at the GT World Challenge Europe in Misano

BMW victory on the Adriatic coast. Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde secured a commanding win in the first race of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Misano. After a flawless performance, the Belgian team’s BMW M4 GT3 secured a commanding victory. For Charles Weerts, this marks his 19th win in the Sprint Cup, including his ninth victory at Misano.

Second place went to Sprint Cup championship leaders Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus in the Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R. However, the winners of the 24 Hours of Spa finished 19.659 seconds behind the winning BMW due to the Full Course Yellow phase.

Lucas Auer and Maro Engel completed the podium in the Mann-Filter-Mamba from WINWARD Racing.

Right at the start, a chain-reaction crash occurred on the start-finish straight, with Andrea Frassineti in the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi and Daniel Juncadella in the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing car being hit the hardest and forced to retire. Pole-sitter Valentino Rossi was also hit hard in the melee; he was able to continue the race but dropped back to fourth place. Charles Weerts capitalised on the chaos to move up from fourth on the grid to first place. During his mandatory pit stop, Valentino Rossi had to serve a 10-second time penalty for a false start, which was one of the factors that triggered the chaos at the start.

With four minutes remaining, the race was neutralised under a Full Course Yellow. Romain Andriolo, in the CSA Racing McLaren, spun off at Curvone following contact with Marcelo Tomasoni and had to be recovered. The neutralisation lasted until the end of the race.

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Misano Race 1 Results (Top 10):

1. Charles Weerts/Kelvin van der Linde – WRT – BMW M4 GT3

2. Ricardo Feller/Bastian Buus – Lionspeed GP – Porsche 911 GT3 R

3. Lucas Auer/Maro Engel – WINWARD Racing – Mercedes-AMG GT3

4. Thierry Vermeueln/Ben Green – Emil Frey Racing – Ferrari 296 GT3

5. Dylan Pereira/Alex Aka – Tresor Attempto Racing – Audi R8 LMS GT3

6. Valentino Rossi/Max Hesse – WRT – BMW M4 GT3

7. Amaury Cordeel/Jordan Pepper – WRT – BMW M4 GT3

8. Christopher Haase/Simon Reicher – Eastalent Racing – Audi R8 LMS GT3

9. Thomas Neubauer/Arthur Leclerc – AF Corse – Ferrari 296 GT3

10. Matisse Lismont/Ignacio Montenegro – WRT – BMW M4 GT3