Rossi Secures First GT World Challenge Pole at Misano

Overview

• Valentino Rossi set a 1:32.154 lap on Saturday to claim his first-ever GT World Challenge pole at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
• A contact between Dennis Marschall and Felix Hirsiger at Turn 4 caused a Group B red flag that cut the Silver/Bronze session short and left drivers with roughly five minutes to post times.
• Andrea Frassineti was the closest challenger with a 1:32.253 to take Silver Cup pole, while class poles were tight across Pro, Gold, Silver and Bronze categories.
• Ricardo Feller was the fastest in Group A and will start near the front as the Sprint Cup points leader, and Fabian Schiller kept Bronze Cup pole despite a track-limits penalty that dropped him from fourth to sixth on the combined grid.
• The one-hour Race 1 began that evening with live streaming on GT World's YouTube channel, and a start-line incident and a 10-second penalty for a grid-hatching breach cost Rossi a stronger result as WRT converted a later race advantage into victory.