Sean Gelael Prepares Strategy for Maximum Results from Imola Race

During the training at Imola Circuit, Italy on Friday (19/4/2024), Sean Gelael was generally the fastest for WRT 31, although the program focused more on race conditions for Sean and his two teammates, Augusto Farfus and Darren Leung.

Also read: Valentino Rossi and Sean Gelael One Team in Enduro Racing

”We learned a lot from the results in Qatar and it was also my first experience driving a GT3 car in the WEC. "The key is a good strategy so that everything can run smoothly until the end," said Sean in a release received by Kompas.

Leung became the racer who got the most driving allocation from the two available FP sessions. The British racer admitted that he needed time to improve his abilities at the WEC level.

As a rookie and in the bronze category, Leung does have an extra burden because he also has to undergo a qualifying round. At the first round in Qatar, Leung finished 14th in qualifying and he was able to improve his race position to ninth before the wheel changed. Leung hopes that this time he can bring the WRT 31 to the Hyperpole round which will be followed by the 10 fastest cars from the qualifying round.

For Sean, a racer supported by Pertamina, Telkomsel, Mandiri, Mind ID and KFC Indonesia, his record time as the fastest among fellow WRT 31 racers is like a continuation of the test results at the same circuit last month. At that time Sean was also good when doing single laps and race runs.

Also read: Enduro Racing Free Practice, Sean Gelael Third Fastest, Valentino Rossi Ninth

Although in the afternoon FP2 Sean's record of 1 minute 42.856 seconds generally only placed WRT 31 in eighth position, the overall program ran well. In FP1, Farfus was the fastest for WRT 31 with a record of 1 minute 43.113 seconds and was in sixth position.

The WRT 31 and their "sister" car, the WRT 46, are predicted to have another fierce battle between them in the LM GT3 class. Sean and Farfus looked very competitive when compared to fellow WRT 46 silver and platinum drivers, Valentino Rossi and Maxime Martin.

However, WRT 46 is still slightly ahead in the bronze category, where Ahmad Al Harty looked better than Leung in Friday's two practice sessions. WRT 46 finished fourth in FP1 and 13th in FP2. The WRT team competes with a BMW M4 GT3 car.

As for the two Corvette cars belonging to the TF Sport team, they dominated on Friday. Car number 82 was the fastest in the GT3 class in FP1 with Spanish racer Daniel Juncadella. Meanwhile, in FP2, it was car number 81's turn to take the top spot with the driving of French racer Charlie Eastwood.

Also read: Sean Gelael Ready to Compete in Enduro Racing with the WRT 31 Team

The second round FIA WEC at the legendary Imola circuit is predicted to be very emotional considering that the hosts now not only have Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but also Valentino Rossi. The 6 Hours of Imola race is a debut event in FIA WEC.

High expectations for Rossi certainly contribute to boosting the popularity of this race, considering "The Doctor" who is famous as a MotoGP legend is also a rookie racer in this endurance car racing championship and almost achieved a podium finish in the first series in Qatar last month.

For Sean Gelael, being a teammate with Rossi in the garage is not a burden or anything else. He only wants the best on the track, nothing else. Sean drives the BMW car for WRT 31, while Rossi is in WRT 46.

In Qatar, Sean and WRT 31 had a tight competition with Rossi and WRT 46. At one point, both cars were in third (WRT 46) and fourth (WRT 31) positions. Unfortunately, the race journey required them to finish in fourth (WRT 46) and sixth (WRT 31) positions.

”Good start in Qatar, almost podium. However, for us, everything went well, there were no mistakes and there were no penalties due to track limits. "Hopefully at Imola we can be better," said Rossi.

Sean, Rossi, and the WRT team must fully utilize the regulations applicable in the LMGT3 class related to Balance of Performance (BoP). They will benefit from the condition where the three teams that finished on the podium in Qatar will bear additional weight in their cars.

The winning team, Manthey PureRxcing, will have an additional weight of 30 kilograms on their Porsche 911 GT3 car. The load comes from 15 kg as the winner and 15 kg as the current leader of the GT3 class standings. The same applies to the Heart of Racing Team (Aston Martin) and D’Station Racing (Aston Martin) teams, each with additional weights of 20 kg and 10 kg respectively. (*)