GTWCE – Weerts-Vanthoor at the finish, Marciello overall champion!

What a finish! The WRT team's No. 32 car won after a crazy final lap. Starting from the first row, Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor were unable to do anything in the first stint against the Mercedes No. 89 of the AKKODIS ASP Team. With Raffaele Marciello at the wheel, the No. 89 flew around the wet Valencia circuit.

After two training laps to warm up the tires, the Swiss set a crazy pace, allowing him to distance all of his opponents. When pitting, his teammate Timur Bogulavskiy took the wheel with wet tires. Behind, WRT decided to put slick tires on the No. 32.

A really risky bet since the track was still very wet. “ It wasn't my idea, it was my engineer's, admitted Charles Weerts at the end of the race. At the beginning it was difficult but I trusted the team and we ended up with a superb victory. » 

The Saintéloc team, which was in 2nd position with Patric Niederhauser, decided to play it safe by continuing on Rain tires. Aurélien Panis succeeds Niederhauser at the wheel of the No. 25 Audi.

Despite a prolonged stop, the Frenchman came back like a cannonball on the leader Timur Bogulavskiy, but came up against the Mercedes in the last laps due to the tires being worn down to the rope after his comeback.

The two leading drivers saw the WRT No. 32 come back behind then attack on the final lap. Charles Weerts overtakes both cars in quick succession and takes the checkered flag as the big winner. Aurélien Panis and Patric Niederhauser were content with second place.

Third place for the No. 89 AKKODIS ASP Team allowed Raffaele Marciello to become overall champion of the season. “ We will celebrate after Barcelona but now I am sad about this race”, he said at the foot of the podium. 

After only ten minutes of relay, Valentino Rossi had to retire at the wheel of the No. 46 of the WRT team. Not far from the top-10 after Frédéric Vervisch's stint, the Italian suffered a battery problem, forcing him to return to the pits.

In Silver, the No. 90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes of Ezequiel Perez Companc and Fabian Schiller, won the category. Manuel Maldonado and Nicolai Kjaergaard give Garage 59 second position. The No. 87 of AKKODIS ASP Team, driven by Casper Stevenson and Thomas Drouet, completes the podium. Victory for JP Motorsport in Pro-Am, with the success of the No. 111 of Patryk Krupinski and Christian Klien. 

GTWCE Sprint Cup Valencia Race 2 2022 standings: