Valentino Rossi rides only slightly slower than his teammates in practice at the GTWC Europe in Imola – Strong improvement in second practice
Less than 0.5 seconds off his teammates’ best time, he is already on par on average: Valentino Rossi made a respectable showing in Saturday’s practice sessions at the season-opening GT World Challenge (GTWC) Europe 2022 at Imola.
The 46 Frederic Vervisch was responsible for the fastest time in Free Practice (1:40.586) and Nico Müller for the fastest lap in Pre Qualifying (1:40.638).
The best three laps in Free Practice and the best five in Pre Qualifying were used for the analysis. This represents the lowest number of meaningful laps by a 46 driver in the respective session.
In Free Practice Rossi was still an average of 0.6 seconds behind Müller on those three laps, while Vervisch was the star performer. In the second practice Rossi was then already almost on a par with Müller, while Vervisch dropped back slightly.
Of course, all figures have to be taken with a grain of salt, as a lot is tried in free practice sessions and not everything is always shown. The traffic of 52 cars on 4.909 kilometres does the rest. Free practice alone saw nine full-course yellow periods and two interruptions.
But the most important finding is: Rossi is with the music. And he’s doing it alongside Audi factory drivers who have years of experience in GT3 racing and are among the best in their field.
Rossi himself is also satisfied: he is almost on the same level as his team colleagues, he said in Imola. Overnight, he wants to concentrate on the middle sector, where he still sees potential.
Of course, there is still a lot of work to do. Half a second is still plenty of positions in the fiercely competitive GTWC. 1:41.041 minutes, Rossi’s fastest time of the day, would have been enough for P18 in Free Practice and P26 in Pre Qualifying.
It has to be said, however, that the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup is Europe’s most competitive GT3 series. 27 and 30 cars finished within seconds of the fastest time in the two practice sessions – and Rossi was right in the middle. For a 43-year-old GTWC rookie, that’s absolutely respectable.
At 9am on Sunday, a three-part qualifying session is on the agenda, with each driver’s time factoring into their grid position. The race start for the 3-hour race is at 3pm.