Imola – The No. 32 of Team WRT takes pole position

At the wheel of the No. 32 Audi during Q3, Charles Weerts gave Team WRT the first pole position of the season.

Published on 03/04/2022 à 10:33

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Imola – The No. 32 of Team WRT takes pole position

The No. 32 Audi of Team WRT will start in pole position this Sunday afternoon. ©SRO / Dirk Bogaerts Photography

The title defense could not have started better for Team WRT. On the Enzo and Dino route Ferrari of Imola, the Belgian structure took pole position for the first race of the season thanks to the time set by Charles Weerts during Q3.

He was hot but the trio Dries Vanthoor-Kelvin van der Linde-Charles Weerts will indeed start from pole position this Sunday afternoon during the 3 hour race, first round of theEndurance Cup. In a Q3 animated by traffic where Valentino Rossi (Team WRT No. 46) was often hampered, Charles Weerts found the right window to set the best lap of the session in 1'40"322. Although his exit from the track a few moments before the checkered flag ended the session, the Belgian was able to maintain his position ahead of the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 of the Saintéloc Junior Team (Légeret-Niederhauser-Mies) which failed at 23 thousandths only. Enough to offer the German manufacturer the first line.

This pole position could also have returned to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 No. 88 from Akkodis ASP (Marciello-Juncadella-Gounon) which was only 49 thousandths behind, demonstrating that the level of the field is very high. The Audi R8 LMS GT3 N°12 from Tresor by Car Collection and the McLaren JP Motorsport's No. 720 3S GT111 completed the Top 5, both barely 1 tenth behind the No. 32 of Team WRT.

Main attraction of the weekend at Imola, Valentino Rossi was unable to stand out during these qualifications. Never being able to have a clear lap due to traffic, the former world driver was unable to help his teammates Frédéric Vervisch and Nico Müller to do better than 15^e on the transalpine circuit. The trio from the Belgian team finished more than half a second behind the sister car.

Very difficult qualifying also for BMW which was only able to place one M4 GT3 in the Top 15 with the 9^e place du trio Farfus-Yelloly-Catsburg (ROWE Racing). Même cas de figure pour Porsche avec ses 911 GT3-R. L’équipage Bachler-Ledogar-Cairoli (Dinamic Motorsport) s’est contenté du 12^e rank.