GT World Challenge, it’s total balance from the start at Monza. Valentino Rossi and Arthur Leclerc are also on track.
Saturday’s free practice at Monza confirmed the extreme compactness of the GT World Challenge Europe, with two very different sessions but united by one impressive fact: almost the entire lineup packed within a single second. The morning ended with Team Verstappen Racing’s Mercedes-AMG ahead of everyone thanks to the final daring of Jules Gounon, author of a 1:46.081 that allowed him to overtake Dennis Lind just as he expired.
The Dane, at the wheel of the #24 Corvette of Steller Motorsport, seemed destined to close in on the lead after beating the initial benchmark of Alex Malykhin, leader for most of the session in the Pure Rxcing Porsche: however, Gounon’s stroke of the kidneys reversed the order. Also noteworthy was the performance of Sven Müller, seventh overall with the Rutronik Racing Porsche, in a session enlivened by several spins and a red flag caused by Rolf Ineichen’s lap at Ascari, fortunately without consequences.
The afternoon instead offered a completely different picture. Surprising was Team RJN, which brought the #23 McLaren to the top of the standings thanks to the 1:46.315 signed by Ben Dörr. Also in FP2, the Steller Motorsport Corvette confirmed its great form, again finishing second with Lind. Third position for Mirko Bortolotti, who gave an encouraging signal to the new Lamborghini Temerario of the TGI by GRT team.
Just behind were Ariel Levi in the Audi Tresor Attempto and Alex Frassineti in the sister car, while the top six was completed by the McLaren Optimum driven by Guilherme Oliveira. In FP2, many of the most anticipated teams remained far from the top positions, but the explanation is simple: after running qualifying simulations in FP1, most of the protagonists devoted the second session to long runs.
This is the case of Mercedes-AMG Verstappen Racing, only sixteenth, but also of Mann-Filter, Garage 59, Comtoyou Racing and Team WRT (for which Valentino Rossi also runs), all of them further behind their real potential. The most significant fact of the day, however, remains the extraordinary compactness of the group: forty-eight cars within a second in the morning, even fifty-four in the afternoon.
A balance that promises an extremely tight qualifying session, scheduled for Sunday at 9:35 a.m., before the three-hour Endurance race that will start at 3:30 p.m. Among the most anticipated drivers on the track is also Arthur Leclerc, Charles’ younger brother, who races for the Ferrari AF Corse team, in a 296 GT3 EVO.
