DOUBLE FIA WEC PODIUM SUCCESS FOR BMW M TEAM WRT AT IMOLA

Race Highlights

Momentum Building Ahead of Spa

With a double podium finish — P2 overall in Hypercar and P2 in LMGT3 — WRT leaves Imola with strong momentum and growing confidence in both categories. The team now looks ahead to one of the highlights of the FIA WEC calendar: the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, taking place on May 10th, where the battle will continue on home soil.

In the meantime, the GT World Challenge Europe squad will head to Brands Hatch for the second round of the championship and the Sprint Cup season opener, scheduled for May 3–4 in the UK.

FIGURES

FACTS

Qualifying HYPERCAR:

Car #15: P3 (Dries Vanthoor)

Car #20: P13 (Robin Frijns)

Hyperpole HYPERCAR:

Car #15: P3 (Dries Vanthoor)

Qualifying LMGT3:

Car #31: P12 (Yasser Shahin)

Car #46: P1 (Ahmad Al Harthy)

Hyperpole LMGT3:

Car #46: P1 (Valentino Rossi)

Starting drivers:

#15: Kevin Magnussen

#20: René Rast

#31: Yasser Shahin

#46: Ahmad Al Harthy

Race – 1^st hour:

Clean start for all cars

FCY – marshalls on track to remove gravel on T3

Car #31: 5 sec added to 1^st pitstop – starting procedure

End of 1^st hour: #15 in P3, #20 in P9, #46 in P1, #31 in P8

Race – 2^nd hour:

Safety Car - #27 in gravel

#31 Driver change to Boguslavskiy

#46 Driver change to Rossi

End of 2nd hour: #15 in P3, #20 in P9, #31 in P2, #46 in P3

Race - 3rd hour:

FCY – debris on track

#15 Driver change to Marciello

#20 Driver change to Frijns

End of 3rd hour: #15 in P3, #20 in P9, #46 in P1, #31 in P4

Race - 4th hour:

#31 stop & go penalty – incident at T18 with #27

#31 Driver change to Farfus

Safety Car - #21 in gravel ​

#46 Driver change to van der Linde

Track is declared wet

#20 Driver change to van der Linde

#15 Driver change to Vanthoor

End of 4th hour: #15 in P4, #20 in P6, #46 in P1, #31 in P12

Race - 5th hour:

#46 stop & go penalty – incident with #21

#31 Driver change to Boguslavskiy

End of 5th hour: #20 in P3, #15 in P7, #46 in P2, #31 in P12

Race - 6th hour:

#31 Driver change to Farfus

#31 Black and orange flag – repairs at rear wing

#31 Drive-through – unsafe rejoin earlier in the race

End of 6th hour: #20 in P2, #15 in P6, #46 in P2, #31 in P12 ​

RACE RESULTS

HYPERCAR

1/ Calado – Giovinazzi – Pier Guidi (Ferrari 499p) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 212 laps

2/ Frijns – Rast – van der Linde (Shell BMW M Hybrid V8) ​ ​ ​ ​ +8.490s

3/ Gounon – Makowiecki – Schumacher (Alpine A424) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ +12.450s

4/ Hanson – Kubica – Ye (Ferrari 499p) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ +20.597s

5/ Buemi – Hartley – Hirakawa (Toyota GR010 Hybrid) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ +23.210s

6/ Magnussen – Marciello ​ - Vanthoor (BMW M Hybrid V8) ​ +25.516s

LMGT3

1/ Hardwick – Lietz – Pera (Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 193 laps

2/ Al Harthy – Rossi – van der Linde (BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO) ​ ​ +0.316s

3/ Gehrsitz – Masson – Robin (Lexus RC F LMGT3) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ +24.301s

4/ Lopez – Schmidt – Umbrarescu (Lexus RC F LMGT3) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ +29.098s

5/ Castellacci – Flohr – Rigon (Ferrari 296 LMGT3) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ + 1 lap

12/ Boguslavskiy – Farfus – Shahin (BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO) ​ ​ ​ ​ + 2 laps

Vincent VOSSE, Team Principal Team WRT: “A great race weekend with a second place both in Hypercar and in LMGT3! Sixth place for car #15 which had some trouble at the end of the race, but we will figure out what happened. We also had different issues with car #31. It is not nice to see them so far down the order as they were running in P2 at mid-race after coming back from P12. It is also unfortunate for car #46 which led a big part of the race and had the pace to win it without the penalty. Anyway, a double podium in WEC is always very satisfying. The next one is our home race. Let’s see what we can do!”

Augusto FARFUS, driver #31: ”There are races where everything just goes wrong. This was one of those races. We had a great car with great speed, but we just couldn't capitalise on it. That's hard to accept because it doesn't happen every time that you have such a strong package available. We made too many mistakes – and luck was also not on our side. But the championship is still open. We now need to focus on the next race!"

Valentino ROSSI, driver #46: “I have mixed feelings because a podium is a good result, but we could have won. It's very unfortunate because the team did a fantastic job, the car was very fast, and we managed the tires well. Ahmad and especially Kelvin at the end drove brilliantly. Kelvin fought until the end and brought the podium home. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and hit the Ferrari in front of me during an overtaking attempt. The subsequent penalty cost us the win. I am sorry about that.”

Raffaele MARCIELLO, driver #15: "I'm happy for the #20 crew that they made it to the podium. They had a lot of bad luck last season. On our side of the garage, we can't be satisfied. Things were going well for a long time, but as the race progressed, we lost performance. Now we need to look at and understand how this happened. We all know how fast Dries is in the car. When I handed over to him, I thought it could be our day. But then the problem occurred."

René RAST, driver #20: "A fantastic result – finally a podium! We didn't expect this after finishing 13th in qualifying, which didn't go as planned. But in the race, we showed how good our car and our team are. We made almost no mistakes, stayed calm, and executed well. In the end, a bit of luck was also involved, but we had so much bad luck in the last races that we now deserve to celebrate."

Find more pictures by clicking on the Media Gallery below.

Media gallery: FIA WEC - IMOLA

42 images - Credits: Michele Scudiero, Drew Gibson, Nick Dungan

W RACING TEAM

Luna de Wilde

Press Officer, W RACING TEAM

• E. luna.dewilde@w-racingteam.com
• M. +32471914237
• W. w-racingteam.com