GT World Challenge Europe: ROWE Racing finishes fifth at the Nürburgring.

Nürburgring. Philipp Eng (AUT), Nick Yelloly (GBR), and Marco Wittmann (GER) have secured fifth place in the Endurance Cup of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS at the Nürburgring (GER). The trio, driving the ROWE Racing Team #98 BMW M4 GT3, even had a podium spot within reach at one point but were set back by a penalty. The ROWE Racing sister car, the #998 BMW M4 GT3 in the design of BMW M Motorsport partner MultiBank Group, also had a strong pace on the Eifel track but lost its podium chances after just a few corners.

Augusto Farfus (BRA), Dan Harper (GBR), and Max Hesse (GER) secured a promising eighth starting position in Sunday morning's qualifying. However, contact in the tight opening stage followed by a spin relegated the #998 BMW M4 GT3 to 29^th place after just a few corners. Subsequently, the Team ROWE Racing trio had strong pace, fought their way up to eleventh place – and narrowly missed a top-10 finish in the final stage.

The #98 BMW M4 GT3 also had a strong Eifel showing and having worked its way up from 13^th place to fourth after about an hour. However, due to a too-short pit stop, the trio had to serve a 15-second penalty which took away all chances of a podium finish. In the end, Yelloly, Eng, and Wittmann finished fifth at the Nürburgring.

Unfortunate race for BMW M Team WRT.

Sunday at the Nürburgring was unfortunate for BMW M Team WRT. Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts (both BEL), and Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) were heading towards a top-10 finish after a race full of wheel-to-wheel duels. However, due to a defect following contact, Vanthoor had to retire his #32 BMW M4 GT3 in the final part of the race. In the sister car, the #46 BMW M4 GT3, Valentino Rossi (ITA), Maxime Martin (BEL), and Raffaele Marciello (SUI) moved up from 24^th place to 18^th. They had already fallen back many places at the start after a slight collision and lost touch with the top-ten.

In the Bronze category, the Team Century Motorsport #991 BMW M4 GT3 crossed the finish line in third place, but a five-second time penalty pushed BMW M works driver Jake Dennis, Darren Leung, and Toby Sowery (all GBR) back from the class podium to fourth place. Ahmad Al Harthy (OMA), BMW M factory driver Jens Klingmann (GER), and Sam De Haan (GBR) steered their #30 BMW M4 GT3 from Team OQ by Oman Racing run by Team WRT to seventh place in the Bronze class.

Comments after the race:

Hans-Peter Naundorf (Team Principal ROWE Racing): “We got the maximum out of it and can be more than satisfied with the final result. Now, after a tough four months, we're looking forward to the summer break, during which we'll all recharge our batteries. In the second half of the season, we will do everything we can to win the title in the Endurance Cup.”

Vincent Vosse (Team Principal BMW M Team WRT): “A frustrating weekend for us. With car 46 we already lost a lot of time behind an incident in lap 1. After that, we gave everything we had with car 32. Unfortunately, we were stuck in traffic and the undercut we tried at the pitstop didn’t work out. A few laps before the end we had contact fighting for P8 and had to withdraw the car, which is very painful. Overall, we didn’t have the pace to challenge our opponents for the top positions. We have to analyse that and fight back at Monza.”

Philipp Eng (#98 BMW M4 GT3, ROWE Racing, 5^th place): “Unfortunately, we didn't have an optimal qualifying, which is why we only started from 13^th place but the car was strong, even in the race. We made many good changes, the balance was really good. Of course, it was a pity that we received the penalty. That can happen. Much more wouldn't have been possible towards the front anyway but the team did a great job, we drivers didn't make any mistakes - and fifth place is a good result."

Augusto Farfus (#998 BMW M4 GT3, ROWE Racing, 11^th place): “It’s a shame with the contact in lap one. A competitor touched me in turn three and forced me into a spin. That unfortunately cost us a good result. Let’s now focus on Monza, which could be a good track for us. We lost a few points on the leaders in the Endurance Cup, but we are still in the fight.”

Valentino Rossi (#46 BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team WRT, 18^th place): “It was a difficult weekend where we struggled a lot with the pace. We worked hard and tried a lot of things on the set-up side but the problem always remained. Unfortunately, we missed the chance to get in the top ten at the start of the race when I had a contact with another car. We lost a lot of time and we had to recover from the back of the field, but it's even more difficult when you lack pace.”

Sheldon van der Linde (#32 BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team WRT, DNF): “Not the weekend we had hoped for, obviously. We had a good start but got pushed outside in turn one and lost some positions again. We then fought our way back and I had a very enjoyable fight with the Lamborghini. It was very hard but always fair. I think we put on a great show. Following the contact with the Ferrari we had to retire late in the race, unfortunately. Now let’s bounce back at Monza!”