GTWorldChEu at Monza: Race Top 10

SRO

Apr 24

First round of new season

What a great world at Monza this weekend for the first round of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS season: the 3 Hours of Monza. With an entry list of nine manufacturers and many factory drivers present in the World Endurance Championship (FIA-WEC) or in the American Endurance Championship (IMSA), the championship promises to be exciting and the public was numerous;

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Start of the Championship with 3 BMW M4 in front; Maro Engel with Mercedes #777 is attacking #998 BMW Junior team and will run in P2 for a while before abandoning.

Despite a difficult start of the weekend for all the BMW teams during free practices, four BMW M4 GT3s started ahead of the pack of cars with the benefit of BoP adjustments made by the technical bureau of the championship on Sunday morning.

The podium

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly with the #98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3.

Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly with the #98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 started from pole and never lost the lead during the whole race.

Philipp Eng (#98 BMW M4 GT3, ROWE Racing, 1st place): “I am extremely happy for the whole team. Since the first test I had at Paul Ricard, we have always been working in the right direction and were today rewarded for that work. We did not make any mistakes, only received one warning for Track Limits, the car was unbelievably well balanced, and we did not make any operational mistakes either. All the drivers were on good form, and I believe that is the first one-two for ROWE Racing in this championship. For me, it was mega cool to start alongside Valentino Rossi. That really was a great moment. He drove superbly and deserved a better result. I also feel sorry for the number 32 car, which had a puncture. However, we will now celebrate the victory and I hope it will be the same story in the big race at Spa-Francorchamps.”

Marco Wittmann (#98 BMW M4 GT3, ROWE Racing, 1st place): “It was a dream start to the season for us. I think, generally speaking, that we have improved the set-up and are going in the right direction. We were there in qualifying when everything was very chaotic. First the delay for the power failure, and then the cancellation of session three. However, it was a super weekend for us. You cannot make a better start to the GT World Challenge Europe than with first and second place. The fact that BMW M Team WRT had the puncture was a bit of a downside. However, I think that all three of us showed very good pace today. The last thirty minutes were ultimately all about avoiding a puncture and bringing the car home. Let’s hope it continues this way. To be fair, you have to say that we had a long, barren spell in the GT World Challenge. That obviously makes it all the nicer to start the Endurance season with the one-two for the team.”

Nick Yelloly (#98 BMW M4 GT3, ROWE Racing, 1st place): “It’s an amazing start to the season. To be honest, my two team-mates left me a pretty easy job. I knew I had a gap to Dries of four or five seconds, my biggest headache was definitely lapping the traffic because they weren’t getting out of the way. Once I could pass a few of those cars and had a little bit of margin between myself and Dries, I knew I was going to be safe. The car was fantastic. I think this shows that BMW and ROWE Racing are working really well together. I’m also really happy for the ‘juniors’ that I now call the ‘seniors’, they have been upgraded to be BMW M works drivers. What a way to start the season. For me it has been a cool couple of months with P2 in Sebring, P2 in Long Beach and now a win here so I’m really happy for all the team and also all the people based in Munich as well.”

Source: BMW Group PressClub Global

The first hour was disrupted by 3 accidents at the « primo variante » causing as many safety cars.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper and Max Hesse with the #998 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3.

Spending most of the race in fourth than in third, the #998 ROWE Racing BMW of Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper and Max Hesse inherited the second spot after the #32 Team WRT suffered a puncture.

Max Hesse (#998 BMW M4 GT3, ROWE Racing, 2nd place): “We are super happy. First and second place for the team and BMW M Motorsport. I am very happy. We made very good use of our package from this morning and did a super job in Q1 and Q2. We were even perhaps a little unlucky that Q3 did not take place, which meant we started from fourth on the grid. The first stint was really tough, but we were able to establish ourselves at the front as the race progressed. In the end, we were happy to finish on the podium. More of the same please.”

Source: BMW Group PressClub Global

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper with the #63 Huracán EVO2 GT3

Great start for Iron Lynx’s new partnership with Lamborghini with a third-place finish for Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper driving the #63 Huracán EVO2 GT3.

4th to 10th overall

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: #25 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3 of Christopher Mies, Patric Niederhauser and Simon Gachet.

The #25 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3 of Christopher Mies, Patric Niederhauser and Simon Gachet ended 0.512 sec. behind the Lamborghini in fourth.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Fifth was the #40 Tresor Orange1 Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3 of Ricardo Feller, Mattia Druid and Dennis Marschall.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts with Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.

After pressing the #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3, the #32 Team WRT squad suffered a puncture with less than 30 minutes to run. Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts had to settle for sixth place.

Dries Vanthoor (#32 BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team WRT, 6th place): “The end of the race was a little bit unfortunate for us, we were doing really well. Sheldon made a good start and we were third after a really good stint from Charles. We had the pace, and we were second and fighting with ROWE Racing for the whole second stint as we were going back and forth with the traffic. My last stint was going well, I was slowly catching Nick, but it was hard, mid-stint I realised it was going to be a difficult fight, but we were catching. And then unfortunately we suffered from a front left puncture, we need to investigate why, probably because of debris on track that cut the tyre. This is just unlucky, but it is what it is, and we just have to keep the positive in mind. We were fighting for the victory, so we must keep this in mind and keep working for the next race.”

Source: BMW Group PressClub Global

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: #21 ComToYouRacing driven by Max Hofer, Nicolas Baert and Maxime Soulet.

A third Audi made the top 10 with #21 ComToYouRacing driven by Max Hofer, Nicolas Baert and Maxime Soulet who also win the Gold Cup.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023: Alessio Rivera, Robert Schwartzmah and Nicklas Nielsen with the Ferrari 296 GT3 ended 8th.

Two Porsche 911 GT3R (992) closed the top 10 : #54 Dinamic GT Huber Racing driven by Ayhancan Güven, Sven Müller and Christian Engelhart and #96 Rutronik Racing Driven by Thomas Preining, Laurin Heinrich and Dennis Olsen.