2023-05-15 17:32:44
Valentino Rossi has experienced what has possibly been its best weekend of the year. The Italian rider has enjoyed two sporting successes at the same time: seeing his MotoGP team triumph in the French Grand Prix and, at the same time, winning his first podium in the Fanatec GT World Challenge championship, where he has participated since the year 2022.
If Marco Bezzecchi celebrated his second victory of the season at Le Mans on Sunday and wore the colors of the Mooney VR46 Racing Team on the top of the podium, Valentino Rossi did the same dressed in the Team WRT suit on British soilstructure with which he is enjoying a second youth in the world of four wheels.
The Brands Hatch weekend did not start easy for the #46 and his BMW M4 GT3 teammate Maxime Martin. Unlike the first round of the season held in Assen under the 3-hour endurance format, the Fanatec GT World Challenge made its second stop of the year in the United Kingdom. with two short races in which Valentino and Maxime had one on lime and the other on sand.
The Team WRT pair did not qualify well in the qualifying session, and they had to tackle the first race from 20th starting position. The Italian-Belgian duo completed this Race 1 in 15th positionand thanks to the reverse grid order of Race 2 and a pair of penalties from two cars in front, Rossi and Martin formed third on the grid on Sunday.
The first stint was for the Belgian, who in the middle of the race handed over the car to Valentino classified in second position; the Yamaha ambassador did not relent to the pressure of the second BMW of the WRT team driven by Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts, and finally ‘Vale’ the checkered flag in second position to 3.7 seconds from the winning pair formed by Audi drivers Mattia Drudi and Ricardo Feller.
This is what it means to @ValeYellow46 and @followWRT #FanatecGT | #GTWorldChEu pic.twitter.com/e6xoyoRENa
— Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (@GTWorldChEu) May 14, 2023
Although Valentino already claimed a podium finish last January by finishing third in the Hankook Dubai 24 Hours, that of Brands Hatch is his first top 3 in the Fanatec GT World Challenge championship, an objective that he had been pursuing since last year: “I’m very happy for this second position and my first podium. We were close a few times last year and at Monza earlier in the season, and it’s finally here.” commented the Italian after the race.
“We have all done a good job, the team, myself and Maxime, who set an incredible lap time in qualifying. The pit stops were perfect, and the result is this podium, which is even more gratifying, since Sprint Cup races are more difficult“, recognized the former MotoGP rider, who is 11th overall in the championship along with Maxime Martin, both with 12 points.
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Valentino himself has shared the following video where he appears celebrating this long-awaited success in style:
#podium #Fanatec #World #Challenge