Team WRT runs the perfect race at Imola

Regularly at the forefront since the private test sessions, the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT31 Evo – Team WRT of Mirko Bortolotti – Kelvin van der Linde – Matthieu Vaxiviere logically wins the 3 Hours of Imola, first round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup 2020.

This is the first success since Monza 2018 for the Belgian team in the SRO Motorsports endurance series.

Pole sitter Frédéric Vervisch (Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo n°66 – Attempto Racing) had nevertheless set the pace at the start of the race against James Calado (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo n°51 – AF Corse).

The Full Course Yellow, then the safety car, are however deployed after less than 10′ following the exit of the track. Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°44 – SPS automotive performance in the wake of the last corner.

On the restart, Vervisch remained in the lead, but an error from Calado benefited Raffaele Marciello (Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo no. 88 – AKKA-ASP) to take second place and start chasing the leader.

New Full Course Yellow shortly after the first half hour of racing, after Jean-Luc Beaubelique (Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo no. 87 – AKKA-ASP) left the track after contact with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo – Madpanda Motorsport, as well as a contact between the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo n°74 – Ram Racing and the Bentley Continental GT3 n°107 – CMR.

Here's what caused the FCY. Confirmed: driver okay.#GTWorldChEu pic.twitter.com/Lf8ZyInGv8

— GT World Challenge Europe (@GTWorldChEu) July 26, 2020

Another incident to report as the RAM Mercedes makes contact with the CMR Bentley.#GTWorldChEu pic.twitter.com/8N3tDM6sq0

— GT World Challenge Europe (@GTWorldChEu) July 26, 2020

The recovery was brief as a new Full Course Yellow was put in place after the loss of a wheel for the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 – Imperiale Racing. Almost the entire peloton then decides to enter the pit lane to observe the first stop, except the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°40 – GPX Racing by Romain Dumas.

After this burst of stops, and while the safety car made its appearance on the track, Attempto Racing remains one of the big losers, since it is the No. 488 Ferrari 3 GT51 Evo – AF Corse of Nicklas Nielsen and n°72 – SMP Racing of Sergey Sirotkin are in the lead ahead of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo n°88 – AKKA-ASP of Timur Boguslavskiy and the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°40 – GPX Racing of Louis Delétraz.

But it was Kelvin van der Linde (No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT31 Evo – Team WRT) who did the work on the track, taking control of the race with an impressive tempo on the track. The Ferrari clan then lost an arrow since the No. 51 of James Calado – Alessandro Pier Guidi – Nicklas Nielsen was penalized with a drive-through for excessive speed under FCY regime.

Broken end of race

The rest of the relay allowed van der Linde to widen a significant gap, the South African leaving his place to Mirko Bortolotti for the last hour of the race. With a 25″ lead over the No. 911 Porsche 3 GT12 R – GPX Racing of Mathieu Jaminet, the Italian seemed to control the end of the race.

But a neutralization under Full Course Yellow then safety car occurs 50′ from the end of the event after the collision between Alvaro Parente (Bentley Continental GT3 n°9 – K-Pax Racing) and Fabian Schiller (Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo n°100 – GetSpeed).

Parente puts Schiller in the gravel – and we have a full-course yellow.

WRT's advantage is likely to be wiped out. #GTWorldChEu pic.twitter.com/GV8jdL2zVp

— GT World Challenge Europe (@GTWorldChEu) July 26, 2020

With two cars between him and Mathieu Jaminet, Bortolotti retained the advantage at the restart and widened the gap with the official Porsche driver, but the race was once again neutralized 25′ from the finish after stopping at the edge of the road. track of the McLaren 720S GT3 n°59 – 59Racing.

No change on the last restart sequence, since Bortolotti remains in the lead ahead of Mathieu Jaminet who resists Felipe Fraga (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°88 – AKKA-ASP) and Dries Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo n° 32 – Team WRT). The top 5 is completed by the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 Evo – Saintéloc Racing de Haase – Winkelhock – Boccolacci.

More complicated race for K-Pax Racing, since the No. 3 Bentley Continental GT3 of Gounon – Soulet – Baptista was forced to return to its box in the first ten minutes of the event, before returning to the track with two laps of delay.

The Silver Cup goes to the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT78 Evo – Barwell Motorsport of Patrick Kujala – Frederik Schandorff – Alex MacDowall. Disappointment for Valentin Hasse-Clot, aligned with theAston Martin Vantage GT3 n°159 – Garage59, at the head of the category but victim of contact with the second Lamborghini – Barwell Motorsport which dropped it to 2nd position

Jonny Adam, Alex West and Chris Goodwin (Aston Martin Vantage GT3 n°188 – Garage59) won in Pro-Am while the Bentley Continental GT3 n°108 – CMR of Stéphane Tribaudini – Romano Ricci – Bernard Delhez, the only crew entered , wins the Am Cup.

Discover the full report of the Imola event in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, in AUTO issue 2271hebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.