News Summary
- Valentino Rossi will start 60th out of 61 cars after losing his qualifying lap for exceeding track limits.
- The MotoGP legend says the BMW #46 had enough pace to start close to Max Verstappen’s Mercedes #3, which qualified 15th.
- Rossi admitted he slowed on his next lap because he believed his earlier time was valid, leaving him without a competitive qualifying result.
Valentino Rossi has admitted that a track-limits mistake destroyed his chance of starting close to Max Verstappen in Saturday’s GT World Challenge Europe finale at Portimão, leaving the nine-time motorcycle world champion almost last on the 61-car grid despite believing his BMW had the pace to challenge the Formula 1 star.
The Italian will start 60th in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, shared with Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen, after his best lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4. Verstappen, meanwhile, qualified 15th in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shares with Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat.
The outcome was particularly frustrating for Rossi because he believed the original lap would have placed the BMW close to both Verstappen Racing and WRT’s sister No. 32 car, which qualified 14th.
Speaking to Sky Italia after qualifying, Rossi made clear how disappointed he was with the result.
“We’re very, very disappointed because the lap had been good, the weather was good, and it would have allowed us to start very close to Verstappen and very close to the #32, our teammates,” Rossi explained.
The result transformed what had been expected to be a fascinating encounter between two world champions into a recovery challenge for Rossi and his teammates.
Rossi explains the mistake that cost him qualifying
The decisive incident occurred during Rossi’s qualifying segment, when he exceeded the track limits at Turn 4.
The Italian said he had deliberately tried to leave a margin through the most difficult sections of the Algarve circuit, but lost that margin while running close to another competitor.
“Honestly, I was expecting it because I had always left myself a little bit of margin in all the risky corners, but at Turn 4, I went over the limit by just a tiny bit,” Rossi said.
The infringement alone did not necessarily have to destroy the team’s qualifying result. Rossi still had time to complete another lap, but he believed his earlier effort would stand and chose not to attack while following another car.
That decision became costly when the deletion was confirmed too late for him to establish another competitive reference.
Rossi explained that he had slowed because overtaking the car ahead would have cost time, unaware that his previous lap would no longer count.
The absence of a valid qualifying time in his segment had a particularly severe consequence under the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup format.
Unlike Formula 1, where a driver’s individual lap determines the grid position, GTWC endurance qualifying uses the combined performances of all three drivers. A missing time from one member of the crew can therefore compromise the entire entry.
The No. 46 BMW consequently fell to 60th on the starting grid, despite the pace demonstrated by Hesse and Verhagen.
Rossi believes he could have fought Verstappen
The mistake was particularly disappointing because Rossi had been looking forward to sharing the circuit with Verstappen.
The two drivers have won a combined 13 world championships in Formula 1 and motorcycle Grand Prix racing, making their first GT World Challenge Europe encounter one of the weekend’s main attractions.
As GRANDE PRÊMIO explained in its preview of the Verstappen–Rossi meeting, the Dutchman is competing in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO while Rossi continues his endurance career with BMW and Team WRT.
Rossi believed the two crews were sufficiently close in performance for the qualifying session to produce a direct comparison.
“So it’s a shame because we could have fought with Verstappen, as we were right there, and it would have been great,” he said.
Instead, the Italian must begin the three-hour race 45 positions behind the Red Bull Formula 1 driver.
Verstappen’s own qualifying session was far from straightforward. The Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry struggled with bouncing and inconsistent handling, leaving the Dutchman, Lulham and Barnicoat outside the leading group.
Verstappen Racing eventually qualified 15th, with a combined average of 1:42.624, 0.553 seconds behind the pole-sitting Boutsen VDS Porsche.
That result had already disappointed the team after Lulham placed the Mercedes fourth in the second free practice session.
Rossi and Verstappen face different recovery challenges
The contrasting qualifying results leave the two champions with very different objectives for Saturday’s race.
Verstappen Racing will start from the midfield, with the possibility of challenging for a top-10 finish or moving further forward through strategy, traffic management and driver changes.
Rossi’s BMW faces a considerably more difficult task from 60th, particularly because the race features more than 60 GT3 entries competing across several classes.
The three-hour format offers opportunities for recovery, but overtaking through such a large field carries risks, especially at Portimão, where elevation changes and fast corners complicate traffic management.
The situation also highlights how GT3 endurance racing differs from the categories in which Rossi and Verstappen established their reputations.
Neither driver can determine the result alone. Their teammates’ performances, pit-stop execution, tyre management and race strategy will all influence the outcome.
For Rossi, the immediate objective is to recover from a qualifying mistake that prevented him from demonstrating the BMW’s pace.
For Verstappen, the challenge is to translate the speed shown during practice into a competitive race result after the Mercedes struggled in qualifying.
When is Rossi and Verstappen’s GTWC race at Portimão?
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup finale takes place on Saturday, October 17, with the three-hour race beginning at 17:00 local time in Portugal and the United Kingdom.
That corresponds to 12:00 EDT in New York, 09:00 PDT in Los Angeles, 21:30 IST in India and 13:00 BRT in Brasília.
The race will be available through the championship’s international streaming service. Readers can consult GRANDE PRÊMIO’s complete Portimão viewing guide for broadcast information and start times across the main English-speaking markets.
GRANDE PRÊMIO will follow the recovery attempts of Rossi and Verstappen through its endurance racing coverage.
