Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe - Round 1 - Paul Ricard Circuit

Report by Marcello Mastroianni 

4 - 7 April 2024

France, the first weekend of April, a mild climate, the hills of Le Castellet and the sea air from the nearby Côte d’Azur. This is the setting for the prologue of the Fanatec GT Europe Challenge which opened the proceedings for the first of eleven Grand Turismo rounds at the French Paul Ricard circuit.

An extremely technical and fast circuit, Paul Ricard would put the racing skils of the 54 GT teams to the test during this two hour endurance race.

The famous and much criticised red and blue stripes surround the track and remind us from every angle we look at the track that we are in France. Red and blue everywhere, but it's another colour that shines brightest in the spotlight this weekend, yellow.

But not just any yellow, Vale Yellow the signature colour of Valentino Rossi. The nine-times Moto GP World Champion is now starting his third season competing in the world of four wheel GT racing with the WRT BMW team.

The echo of his legend continues to reverberate around the motorsport world and appears to be as strong as ever. Thousands of fans flocked to the inaugural stage of the championship to watch and support the “doctor” in his opening two-hour endurance race.

It was a positive weekend for the WRT team with a qualifying session on Saturday which earned car number 46 (what other number would Valentino drive?) sixth place on the grid.

Team mates Raffaele Marciello and Maxime Martin, helped the blue and yellow BMW to a fourth place overall in an incidcent packed race which saw the safety car deployed four times.

Sunday’s crazy adrenaline-filled 85 lap race had the BMW #998 M4 GT3 of the ROWE team and the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 #63 of the Iron LYNX team battling or the lead.

However, the ROWE BMW was unattainable in the second half of the race and won by dominating the French stage of the endurance cup with a 13.5 second lead with the trio of Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse at the wheel.

In third was the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of the M-AMG Team GetSpeed driven by Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Jules Gounon

A great start for the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge season, with an immense grid, pure competition and an incredible paddock atmosphere. In scenes reminiscent of his MotoGP days, hundreds of fans were seen outside Rossi's hospitality, waiting hours for the chance to receive an autograph or for a selfie with their idol.

We therefore wish for Valentino to remain around GT for a long time, hoping that he can bring the same impact he has had in the world of two wheels, increasing the popularity and following of the Fanatec championship.

Next stop, 4-5 May 2024 at Brands Hatch for two one hour Sprint Cup races on Sunday the 5th. Valentino got his first GT victory last year during the second sprint race in Misano in front of his legion of fans who have never abandoned him since MotoGP.

Will there be a sea of Vale Yellow at Brands to cheer the Goat of motorsport on?