RNW Staff

Successful debut weekend for GRT in the DTM. The Lamborghini team from Austria departs from the season opener at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve with the championship lead in their bag. Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti claimed another top result on Sunday carrying the success ballast of the previous day’s podium. After second place in qualifying, he steered the number 63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO to a commanding third place in the race. In the standings, the Italian and GRT are leading the drivers’ and team standings with 35 points. The next stop of the DTM 2022 will be at the Lausitzring from 20th to 22nd May.

AF Corse kicked off the Sprint Cup season with a sensational overall victory at Brands Hatch thanks to a mature performance from Ulysse De Pauw and Pierre Alexandre Jean in the #53 Ferrari. 

John Edwards will start the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M4 GT3 fourth in the GTD PRO class in tomorrow’s two-hour-and-forty-minute Monterey Sports Car Championship. He posted a 1:23.740-minute lap around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca circuit, 0.598 seconds in arrears of the pole sitting Porsche 911 GT3R. Edwards will co-drive with Connor De Phillippi, the duo looking for their first podium finish of the season.

WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill) and Daniel Juncadella (Spain) will start tomorrow’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship Presented by Motul from the front row in GTD Pro.

After a strong start at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Oliver Jarvis brought that momentum into qualifying on Saturday after a run that nearly put the Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) Acura ARX-05 on pole position. Jarvis and teammate Tom Blomqvist will start from second for Sunday’s Monterey Sports Car Championship.

Raffaele Marciello (#89 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG) and Ulysse De Pauw (#53 AF Corse Ferrari) shared the spoils in today’s season-opening Sprint Cup qualifying at Brands Hatch. 

Bittersweet debut for GRT in the DTM. In Saturday’s race at the season opener on the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Mirko Bortolotti claimed a podium for the Lamborghini team from Austria in a dramatic race. In the morning, the Italian had sensationally clinched his first pole position in the DTM, which was also the first for GRT and Lamborghini. In the race, the driver of the number 63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO was on course for victory until a safety car phase. A temporary problem cost him the lead. In the final phase, the Lamborghini works driver made his way back onto the podium in a hard fought battle with Mercedes-driver Maro Engel. With third place, he ensured a conciliatory result.

Following the team’s dominant victory in Long Beach, the Paul Miller Racing team returns to California with the all-new BMW M4 GT3 to chase down another IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win.

Whelen Engineering drivers Pipo Derani (Brazil) and Tristan Nunez (Boynton Beach, Fla.) are set to tackle the famous Corkscrew in Round 4 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship presented by Motul at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca April 29 – May 1.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing aims to get back to winning ways when it makes the short journey to Belgium next week for the second round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

The many fans of the DTM can look forward to a season of records: With 29 race cars – including six Audi R8 LMS from three teams – and drivers from 15 nations, the grid is larger than ever before since the series was relaunched in 2000. René Rast, three-time champion with Audi, returns to the professional racing series after a one-year break. The DTM Trophy as another league in which five Audi R8 LMS GT4 cars from two customer teams will participate completes the popular racing platform. For the season opener from April 29 to May 1, the DTM teams will travel to Portimão for the first time. The circuit on the Mediterranean coast is the first of eight rounds in five European countries. In Portugal, the TCR Europe is also part of the program with three Audi RS 3 LMS gen II cars, among others.

Audi ahead of Porsche: that was the order at the end of the first DTM test day just before the season opener at Portimão. Swiss Ricardo Feller ended up fastest in the Team ABT Sportsline Audi R8 with a time of 1m 41.573s ahead of Austrian Thomas Preining (1m 41.658s) with the Porsche 911 from KÜS Team Bernhard. With 21-year-old Feller, a DTM newcomer posted the fastest lap time, just like in the first official DTM test in early April. At Hockenheim, it had been German Marius Zug, the youngest driver in the field at 19, who confirmed his performance with the third-fastest time at Portimão on Tuesday with the Attempto Racing Audi. The 29 drivers from the record field of the 2022 DTM will continue the second official test on Wednesday afternoon. The first two of this season’s 16 races will be held at the 4.653 kilometres long track on the Algarve on Saturday and Sunday (race start 1.30pm CEST on both days).

The Spaniard of Kurdish ancestry will contest the curtain raiser event of the 2022 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup season this weekend. Tutumlu, who has never raced at Brands Hatch before, will be sharing the GSM Novamarine-run Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo with Austrian Gerhard Tweraser.

The spectacular entry by record world rally champion Sébastien Loeb, the comeback by three-time champion René Rast, the historic entry by Porsche – DTM is writing many spectacular stories during its season opener at the Portuguese Formula 1 track of Portimão this weekend (29 April till 1 May). The 2021 season, the first year with GT3 regulations, was thrilling from the first till the final race. Now, DTM, watched all over the world, is gearing up for a record season: 29 race cars, more than ever before since the DTM’s comeback in 2000; six high-quality brands, a number last seen in the 1990s, and drivers from 15 nations, another record.

BMW M Team RLL will compete for a second consecutive IMSA weekend in California, this time in Monterey at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway. The No. 25 MOTUL BMW M4 GT3 will be driven by Connor De Phillippi and John Edwards, the pair still looking for their first podium finish of the season.

British-Korean driver Jack Aitken picked up a top-five finish and valuable points from his first outing in the ADAC GT Masters championship with Emil Frey Racing at Oschersleben. Despite the familiarities of the team and its Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO, Jack arrived at Oschersleben with limited experience of the circuit, situated between the main cities of Berlin and Hanover, having only driven in the official pre-season test days a fortnight ago. Also new to the circuit and championship was the Emil Frey Racing team itself, but the pace in the car throughout the opening day’s free practice sessions was a good omen ahead of qualifying.

WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill) and Daniel Juncadella (Spain) are ready for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship Presented by Motul, April 29-30.

The past months of relentless work and intensive preparations have all been dedicated to this one moment: Next weekend, from 29 April to 1 May, the eagerly awaited DTM adventure begins for GRT in Portugal with the first of eight events. At the season opener on the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, the Lamborghini team from Austria will face the toughest GT3 series in the world for the first time. A field of 29 GT3 cars from six manufacturers will meet for the first test of strength. The week in Southern Europe has more than its share of challenges for the newcomers to the DTM. In the run-up to the race action, the crews of the four Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVOs are scheduled for the second official test days.

Daniel Harper and the BMW Junior Team narrowly missed out on a great race victory as they secured their first podium finish of 2022 in the Nürburgring Endurance Series on Saturday (23rd April).

Japanese squad Team GMB will finally make its Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS debut this season.