WRT’s Valentino Rossi was satisfied with finishing fourth on his FIA World Endurance Championship debut in Qatar, although was disappointed to miss out on an LMGT3 podium finish.
After the #46 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 finished just outside the podium places last weekend at the Qatar 1812 km season-opener, the team were the highest finishing entrant out of their two LMGT3 cars.
The nine-time MotoGP World Champion and BMW works driver said: “It’s a good start to the season as finishing P4 is quite good but it’s a shame to be so close to the podium.
“It was a perfect race for us with no mistakes, no track limits.
“The guys did an amazing job in the pits as well and we just missed a little bit of speed to make it to the podium.”
Whilst it was the WEC’s debut at the Losail International Circuit, it was not for Rossi through his famed motorcycle racing career having won four MotoGP races at the Qatari venue.
With this in consideration, it was a largely different affair for Rossi at almost 10-hours of racing in GT3 machinery.
Furthermore, 2024 marks his second year as a BMW driver having now added the WEC to his other GT duties with WRT.
The #46 started ninth in the hands of Ahmad Al Harthy, and so he conducted an impressive quadruple stint during the opening phase of the race, before handing over to Rossi for a double-stint, followed by Maxime Martin before Rossi and Martin each repeated the effort to the end.
During his maiden double-stint, Rossi started with the #46 in eighth and handed over to Martin with the car in P4.
Whilst the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 dominated the class initially, it became a closer fight for the finish approaching the end.
Nevertheless, they were shy of the podium by 12 seconds as Martin’s chase on third-placed Marco Sorensen (#777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage) was not quite enough in the end, despite running in P3 in the seventh, eighth and ninth racing hours.
Little to no mistakes were made by the #46 crew of Harthy, Rossi and Martin, which earned them a finishing spot two places ahead of the #31 sibling BMW.
Vincent Vosse, Team Principal of Team WRT, concluded: “… It is never a great feeling when you know that you have achieved a good race without any mistakes but you still miss the podium.
“In the end, we missed some tools to fight for a higher-score so now let’s work and get stronger for the next race.”
