Double victory for ROWE RACING in Monza

Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly first put the #98 BMW M4 GT3 on pole and then drove to race victory in the first of five rounds of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. It is ROWE RACING's first success in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe outside of Spa, where the team had triumphed in 2016 and 2020. Dan Harper, Neil Verhagen and Max Hesse made the ROWE one-two perfect in the #998 sister car.

At the start and two restarts after safety car phases, Philipp Eng in the #98 confidently maintained first place against nine-times motorbike world champion Valentino Rossi in another BMW. Eng handed over as the leader to Marco Wittmann, who also pitted as the leader for the final driver change. Nick Yelloly then drove home the victory. In the sister car, Dan Harper had lost a position at the start and handed over to Neil Verhagen in fourth. He sent Max Hesse into the final stint in third position. When 26 minutes before the end of the race the BMW in front of him was set back by a puncture, Max Hesse moved up to second place, which he did not relinquish until the finish.

Hans-Peter Naundorf, Team Principal ROWE RACING: “It is huge to claim a one-two like that at a racetrack with so much tradition. We could never have dared to dream of anything like that, and I still cannot quite believe it. To secure pole position and then produce a race like that makes everyone in the team incredibly happy. That is the reward for all the hard work over recent weeks.“

Philipp Eng (#98 ROWE RACING BMW M4 GT3): “I am extremely happy for the whole team. Since the first test I had at Paul Ricard, we have always been going in the right direction and were today rewarded for that work. We did not make any mistakes, only received one warning for Track Limits, the car was unbelievably well balanced, and we did not make any operational mistakes either. All the drivers were on good form and I believe that is the first one two for ROWE RACING in this championship. For me, it was mega cool to start alongside Valentino Rossi. That really was a great moment. He drove superbly and deserved a better result. However, we will now celebrate the victory and I hope it will be the same story in the big race at Spa-Francorchamps.”

Marco Wittmann (#98 ROWE RACING BMW M4 GT3): “It was a dream start to the season for us. I think, generally speaking, that we have improved the set-up and are going in the right direction. We were there in qualifying, when everything was very chaotic. First the delay for the power failure, and then the cancellation of session three. However, it was a super weekend for us. You cannot make a better start to the GT World Challenge Europe than with first and second place. Let’s hope it continues this way. To be fair, you have to say that we had had a long, barren spell in the GT World Challenge Europe. That obviously makes it all the nicer to start the Endurance season with the one two for the team.”

Nick Yelloly (#98 ROWE RACING BMW M4 GT3): “It’s an amazing start to the season. To be honest, my two team-mates left me a pretty easy job. I knew I had a gap to Dries Vanthoor of four or five seconds, and my biggest headache was definitely lapping the traffic because it wasn’t getting out of the way. Once I could pass a few of those cars and had a little bit of margin between myself and Dries Vanthoor, I knew I was going to be safe. The car was fantastic. I think this shows that BMW and ROWE RACING are working really well together. I’m also really happy for the ‘juniors’ that I now call the ‘seniors’, they have been upgraded to be BMW M works drivers. What a way to start the season.”

Max Hesse (#998 ROWE RACING BMW M4 GT3): “We are super happy. First and second place for the team and BMW M Motorsport. I am very happy. We made very good use of our package from this morning, and did a super job in Q1 and Q2. We were even perhaps a little unlucky that Q3 did not take place, which meant we started from fourth on the grid. The first stint was really tough, but we were able to establish ourselves at the front as the race progressed. In the end, we were happy to finish on the podium. More of the same please.”