McLaren narrowly beat Mercedes to win in red-flag affected GTWC race 2, Rossi robbed of podium by penalty

Written by Owen Bradley

Credit: SRO/JEP

The No.59 McLaren team won at Misano in race 2 of the GT World Challenge powered by AWS, with Ben Goethe scoring his first GTWC victory, maintaining composure after a huge crash between the No.991 BMW of Darren Leung and the No.01 Lamborghini put the red flag out and delayed the race by a couple of hours. Meanwhile, a penalty robbed home hero Valentino Rossi of attempting to do the double at Misano.

The No.59 Garage 59 McLaren maintained their lead on the opening lap, successfully defending from the No.46 Team WRT BMW of Raffaele Marciello, who hounded the McLaren on the exit of Turn 6's quick left-hander and onto the back straight. The No.46 BMW got a phenomenal run on the McLaren, switching to the left side, trying to take the inside line for Turn 7, but the McLaren of Marvin Kirchhöfer suddenly switched across to the left of the circuit.

Marciello sent the No.46 BMW around the outside of Kirchhöfer's No.59 McLaren, the McLaren just squeezing the BMW out wide and off the circuit. Kirchhöfer was able to successfully defend from Marciello on the opening lap, as the No.48 Mercedes of Maro Engel watched the pair duel in front, waiting to pick up the pieces.

There were further battles behind, namely with the No.32 Team WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde, who attempted to bring the No.32 BMW back through the field after qualifying in 15th position.

Van der Linde managed to climb inside the Top 10 in the opening couple of laps, as the sister No.46 WRT BMW continued to run right up to the rear bumper of the No.59 McLaren, almost making a pass on the back part of the circuit, that BMW carrying exceptional speed out of Turn 9.

Credit: SRO/JEP

Suddenly, after just over 15 minutes of racing, the Red Flag would be deployed and the session came to a complete stop, after the No.991 BMW of Leung and the No.01 Lamborghini came together after the flat-out right-hander Turn 10, with the BMW hitting the rear of the Lamborghini, sending Georgi Donczew aggressively into the barrier, as the No.01 Lamborghini caught fire, and was thrown back across the circuit, being collected by the No.80 Porsche.

Donczew was able to safely make it out of the car quickly, and was unharmed. Yet another testament to safety in the modern motorsport era.

This crash brought out a lengthy red flag period that lasted almost two hours, with just a quarter of the race distance having been completed. This meant that they could not end the race under a red flag, as less than half the distance had been completed.

The cars would finally get fired up once again, as the field completed a couple of laps behind the Safety Car. By the time the green flag was waved, there was only a few minutes remaining before the pit stop window opened.

Marvin Kirchhöfer was able to open the gap at the restart, to keep the No.59 McLaren ahead of the chasing No.46 Team WRT BMW of Marciello. Meanwhile, Thierry Vermeulen in the No.69 Verstappen Red Bull Emil Frey Ferrari managed to get them back inside the Top 10 at the restart, chasing after Gilles Magnus in the No.25 Audi for the lead in the Gold Cup.

The two leaders came into the pits at the first available opportunity, leaving the No.48 Mercedes of Engel out as the race leader, opting to run a slightly offset strategy.

The No.59 McLaren started to extend the lead, with Ben Goethe at the wheel, as Valentino Rossi's hopes of getting a double victory at Misano started to fade, with the stewards investigating the No.46 BMW for speeding in the pit lane.

The No.96 Porsche of Patrick Niederhauser then suddenly dived to the inside of Lucas Auer, who had taken over from Engel in the No.48 Mercedes and was running in third position. The pair duelled through Turns 9, 10, 11 and 12, through the fast triple right-hander, as the Mercedes managed to get back into third place on the exit of Turn 10.

Weerts in the championship leading No.32 WRT BMW had managed to get through a few cars at the restart, climbing from 9th to 6th position as we approached the final quarter of the race.

The No.991 BMW would be struck by even more misfortune, with Leung picking up a 20-second penalty for the incident that brought out the red flag, and then Dan Harper picking up another 20-second penalty for an unsafe release, which saw the No.991 BMW hit a tyre in the pit lane, sending it flying down the pits.

Credit: SRO/JEP

Rossi's No.46 Team WRT BMW would be penalised due to Raffaele Marciello speeding in the pit lane, dropping Rossi and the No.46 crew from second position, down to 21st, a heartbreaking result after Rossi had started to close the gap to the leading McLaren before the penalty.

The No.48 Mercedes of Auer, however, was able to close right onto the rear bumper of the No.59 McLaren, with just a few minutes remaining. The pair ran bumper to bumper as Ben Goethe attempted to score a maiden victory in the GT World Challenge, the McLaren more powerful on the straights.

The McLaren came over the line to start the final lap, and the No.48 Mercedes of Lucas Auer was absolutely hounding the rear of the McLaren, with Auer almost driving into the back of Goethe at Turn 7.

However, it was Ben Goethe who drove the No.59 Garage 59 McLaren over the line to claim a maiden victory at Misano, surviving attempts from the No.46 WRT BMW of Rossi and Marciello and later the No.48 Mercedes of Auer and Engel.