TEAM WRT DETERMINED TO FURTHER IMPROVE ITS SUCCESS RECORD AT MISANO

TEAM WRT DETERMINED TO FURTHER IMPROVE ITS SUCCESS RECORD AT MISANO

30/06/2021

Summer means holidays, even more awaited this year because of the circumstances we all know, but it is also synonymous of some traditional events in motorsports. One of those is the yearly stop of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS at Misano, the popular resort on the shores of the Adriatic. The Italian track is hosting the third round of the Sprint Cup, although there will be this year a twist to what is usual, as the weekend format does not include a night race.

This will make things ... warmer for everybody, and so is also the situation in the standings of the Sprint Cup, where Team WRT enter its three Audi R8 LMS with its regular line-ups.

After the other ‘beach round’ at Zandvoort, the situation in the rankings is getting more and more interesting. Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts are now second in the Drivers’ classification with the narrowest gap possible (0.5 points), while Team WRT leads the Teams’ standings tied in points with Emil Frey Racing. In the overall Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe, the situation is better, with the Belgian duo leading by 8.5 points and the squad by 15.5 points.

Team WRT’s line-up is back to its standard configuration, with Kelvin van der Linde again sharing car #30 with Benjamin Goethe, Ryuichiro Tomita-Frank Bird in car #31, which is fresh from two podium finishes in the Silver Cup, and Vanthoor-Weerts in car #32.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse has a clear idea on what the mission will be in Italy: “We go there with the primary objective of retrieving the leadership in the Sprint Cup standings, or not to lose more ground. We have always performed well at Misano in recent years, and in 2020 won 2 races out of 3. We have worked well ahead of this round and we are determined to close it with a clean sheet.”

Dries Vanthoor: “Great to go to Misano, we have always been strong there with the Audi and hopefully it will be the same this year. We feel very motivated, and the objective is to be competitive and fight for the wins. We’re down 0.5 points from the leaders in the standings, and the goal for the weekend is to come out of Misano as leaders again.”

Charles Weerts: “Misano is an interesting one, we have very good memories there and we all look forward to this round. With Dries, we’ll try to get back the Sprint Cup championship’s led, where we only miss half-point, so let’s do our best and maximize points collection.”

Ryuichiro Tomita: “We had a good weekend at Misano last year, where I finished second in the opening race, my first race in Europe with Kelvin. I think the whole team is very motivated to improve on the results from the last race and we will try to get even better results than last year.”

Kelvin van der Linde: “Last year, Misano worked very well for the team, getting a 1-2 for the first weekend of the season, l look forward to be back there and try to repeat the result. The team is working very hard and well, the car is showing good form, so anything is possible and we’ll go full-attack. My goal in the Sprint Cup is to help Benji but I am in a championship’s hunt in the Overall!”

Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS – Sprint Cup Round 3
Misano Adriatico, Italy, 1^st – 4^th July 2021

Timetable (CET)

Thursday 1^st July 2021
13:30-17:30 Paid free test

Friday 2^nd July 2021
11:50-12:30 Free Practice (Bronze drivers only)
12:30-13:10 Free Practice
17:00-18:20 Pre-qualifying

Saturday 3^rd July 2021
09:40-10:00 Qualifying 1
15:00-16:00 Race 1

Sunday 4^th July 2021
09:00-09:20 Qualifying 2
14:00-15:00 Race 2

Team WRT (GTWCE Sprint Cup) entry – Audi R8 LMS
#30 – Benjamin Goethe (DE) – Kelvin van der Linde (ZA) - Pro
#31 – Frank Bird (GB) – Ryuichiro Tomita (JP) - Silver
#32 – Dries Vanthoor (BE) – Charles Weerts (BE) - Pro