Valentino Rossi was forced to withdraw from 24 Hours of Le Mans this night after his teammate went off the track with his BMW. Just before one o’clock, the Omani Ahmad Al Harthywho was in the top five of the lower LMGT3 class, finished his race in the gravel. Not being able to restart, the crew of the Belgian WRT team had to throw in the towel. The withdrawal was a hard blow for Rossi, Al Harthy and the third man of the team – the Belgian Maxime Martin – who were aiming for a podium on the Sarthe circuit.
Valentino Rossi’s race
The multiple world champion of MotoGP was participating for the first time 24 Hours of Le Mans. He got behind the wheel just before 8.00 pm and after his shift he declared that he was “had fun despite the pressure“. The Doctor led the race without errors: a solid stint in a complicated section due to the setting of the sun and the arrival of night, with increasingly complex visibility on a track full of cars (more than 60 in all categories). After 2 hours and 2 minutes at the wheel, Rossi got out of the BMW having still finished his first stint in the lead, when the 6 hours of racing had been reached.
