Imola: A season start not quite as desired 🎥

TURBULENTE GT WORLD CHALLENGE Of the nine Swiss drivers who started in the first major GT3 race, Raffaele Marciello finished second on Mercedes and thus made the podium. They put in a great performance in the GT4 field.

Editorial - April 4, 2022

Several yellow and red flags in the practice and qualifying sessions meant that turbulent scenes were also expected for the opening race of the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup in Imola. In the end, it was not only the speed of the individual teams that decided the outcome, but also luck with the timing and course of the two fuel stops with driver changes.

Only the champion car was faster than Marciello's Mercedes
One of the two Mercedes Performance teams with Raffaele Marciello from Ticino, Spaniard Daniel Juncadella and Frenchman Jules Gounon had both. They were therefore also absolutely satisfied with second place overall.

The pace in the three-hour race was set by the WRT Audi, already victorious in last year's championship, which factory drivers Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weert and Dries Vanthoor drove to victory at Imola.

The first GTWC podium of the year. On the far left of the drivers' lineup, the tall Raffaele Marciello in second place.

Small mistake cost Niederhauser and Légeret a top result
Initially, the second-fastest Audi in qualifying from the Saintéloc Junior Team with German Christopher Mies at the wheel (upper gallery, left) was among the front runners. After eight laps, he took the lead from Weerts, who had been leading from the start, which Van der Linde retook after the driver change.

The young Swiss Lucas Légeret made a small mistake about halfway through the race when he was in second place, forcing him through the gravel bed and knocking him out of the top ten. Patric Niederhauser as the final runner was still able to secure ninth place and thus two points.

Rossi must also learn from mistakes
Nico Müller, with star driver Valentino Rossi and factory driver colleague Frédéric Vervisch as partners on another WRT Audi, did not yet manage this. "Vale" took over the car from the Bernese in 13th position after the first third of the race and roughly maintained this during his stint.

Unfortunately, the rookie missed his pit position in the scrum (upper gallery center) and thus lost a lot of time due to the involuntary pit pass. More than 17th place overall was no longer possible. The majority of the 20,000 or so spectators had come mainly because of Rossi, despite Corona protection measures.

Bad luck for "unemployed" Rahel Frey
The other Swiss drivers Dominik Fischli (upper gallery right), Mauro Calamia, Alain Valente (lower gallery left) and Karim Ojjeh finished well below the podium in their respective classes. Rahel Frey did not race at all because team-mate Sarah Bovy spun on the second race lap and her Ferrari was subsequently hit by a McLaren.

Emil Frey Racing only in midfield
Emil Frey Racing only managed one top 15 finish. Two of the three crews drove the three-hour race to the end, with the #63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO of Mirko Bortolotti, Jack Aitken and Albert Costa Balboa (lower center gallery) finishing 13th.

The #19 crew of Giacomo Altoè, Léo Roussel and Arthur Rougier were unlucky as a fuel supply problem forced them to retire in the final hour. Stuart White, Tuomas Tujula and Konsta Lappalainen overcame a power steering problem in their #14 Huracán, but only finished 28th. In the Silver Cup standings, they at least still scored two points for P9.

Swiss double victory in GT4
Swiss flags flew several times after the two one-hour races of the GT4 European Series. In the equally large field of 48 near-series GT sports cars, Switzerland's Konstantin Lachenauer and Briton Gus Bowers prevailed twice.

Their Aston Martin Vantage AMR (lower gallery, right) will be fielded by Team Spirit of Léman. Lachenauer, who comes from national karting, has been part of the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy since 2021 and won his first GT4 race at Zandvoort last year.

In the second race, which like Saturday's first ended under yellow, Alex Fontana and Ivan Jacoma placed themselves on the podium as overall runner-up and winner of the Cat. Pro-Am on the podium. Sixth from the previous day, they managed to jump ahead in the Porsche Cayman thanks to good pace from the start and a perfectly timed pit stop.