GTWCE Imola: #32 WRT wins from pole, Rossi suffers pitlane mix-up

It was not all smooth sailing for the #32 Audi R8, piloted by Dries Vanthoor, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts, although through pit strategy they reclaimed first place after losing it to fellow Audi runners Sainteloc Junior Team's #25 entry.

WRT's #32 team had bagged the first pole position of the 2022 season kicking off the new-spec Audi R8's great debut at Imola.

The first corner was drama free, yet the #83 Iron Dames car was knocked, spun and placed perpendicular on the track, which caused the car to be out of the race on just lap 1, despite driver Rahel Frey being the quickest of all Ferraris in Q1.

But after half an hour, Sainteloc's #25 - driven by Lucas Legeret, Christopher Mies and Patric Niederhauser - had assumed the lead of the race; Weerts went wide, which allowed Mies to easily take the race lead.

But WRT outfoxed its rival when it came to pit strategy, with an undercut that proved to be the best strategy to reclaim track position - which allowed the #32 to take the lead back from the #25 around an hour into the race.

The #32 played it steady as they extended their lead to over 6.6 seconds by the end of the race.

Devastatingly, just after the halfway point, Legeret lost the #25 to the gravel, causing him to fall from P2 to P14, placing him just behind MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi in his debut in the series in car #46.

#46 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS evo II GT3: Nico Müller, Frédéric Vervisch, Valentino Rossi

Photo by: SRO

Just after this dramatic drop by car #25, the #97 Aston Martin halted just off the track, causing a yellow flag on the whole track as it was attempted to be retrieved.

This preceded the next 30 minutes of the race, in which a flurry of safety cars somewhat halted any action.

But as all