Valentino Rossi infinite, wins at Le Mans with BMW

The legend of Valentino Rossi starts again from the most evocative circuit in the world, and precisely on the hundredth anniversary of the first Le Mans race: the Doc, who turned 43 last February, won the first race of his new adventure on the track, no longer in the saddle but at the wheel of a GT3 naturally with number 46. At the end of a spectacular comeback with the BMW M4 of the Wrt team, he climbed to the top step of the podium in Race-2 of the Road to Le Mans: the final lap was decisive and the overtaking on the Porsche 911 of the Danish Fjordbach. Tomorrow the 9-times world champion will be at Mugello to watch the sprint race of the world championship directly from the box of his team, the Mooney Vr46, which alongside Marco Bezzecchi lines up his brother, Luca Marini.

The last victory on the track in Assen in 2017

Exactly 6 years have passed since Rossi’s last victory, in the Dutch MotoGP Grand Prix of Assen: it was June 25, 2017. In the following 4 seasons, the Rimini rider continued to compete with the official Yamaha, then said goodbye to 2-wheelers of Valencia 2021 and the transition to another passion: racing cars. Last year he made his debut at Imola with a 17th place driving an Audi R8 LMS together with his crew mates Frèdéric Vervish-Nico Muller. Then another 8 appointments in the endurance and sprint categories, with some small mistakes due to lack of experience, a pinch of bad luck and a few acute ones, a 21st place finish and 38 points in the standings. Last autumn, the confirmation of the Wrt team, however, the move to the M4 with Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus: in the second race at Brands Hatch as an official BMW driver, Valentino had reached the podium for the first time, finishing behind Mattia Drudi’s Audi and Riccardo Feller. Another good series of placings in the 24 Hours of Dubai and the 12 Hours of Bathurst, then the Le Mans Cup which in France saw him compete together with Jérôme Policand.

That spectacular overtaking on the last lap

Jerome Policand, Valentino’s teammate, started in first position, but subsequently suffered some overtaking. At the time of the driver change, the Frenchman was in fifth place: Valentino therefore started a splendid comeback that brought him close to the podium and ended up overtaking Fjordbach. In reality, BMW had finished in second place overall, but the winner Cozzolino (Ferrari AF Corse) was penalized, rewarding the Doc’s number 46 BMW. In the standings, absolute success for the Swiss Sanjuan and Droux with the Cool Racing Ligier. BMW one-two in GT3: behind Rossi-Policand, teammates Hesse and Timothy.