Valentino Rossi misses top 10 in Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying

It was a 12th🌠-place qualifying for Valentino Rossi’s #46 BMW M4 GT3.

#46 BMW, 2025 Bathurd 12 Hour. Credit: Bathurst 12 Hour.
#46 BMW, 2025 Bathurd 12 Hour. Credit: Bathurst 12 Hour.

Qualifying for the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour has been completed, with Valentino Rossi qualifying 12th for his third attemp𝐆t at th🦄e race.

Rossi, who is now into his third season as a factory BMW driver after making his💎 maiden full-time GT3 campaign with Audi in 2022, was eighth on the grid for last year’s race, in which he acquitted himself well and was able to run among the front running drivers in what is one of the premier events in the sportscar racing calenda🦄r.

The Italian is paired with Charles Weerts – who was driving the #32 BMW at last year’s Bathurst race when it ma🃏de contact with a lapped car – and Raffaele Marciello, whose main duties this year are in thဣe World Endurance Championship with BMW’s M V8 Hybrid LMDh car, this year.

This represents a change to last year for Rossi, who was alongside Marciello and Maxime Martin🦂 in 2024’s edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour.

The three were in contention to make the top-10 pole positioꩲn shootout, but an overheati🧸ng issue saw them miss a final time attack run, leaving them in 12th.

Further up the grid, it was t🍨he Mercedes of Maximilian Goetz, Lucas Auer, and Jayden Ojeda who set pole position in the final 10-car shꦇootout.

Broc Feeney, Ricardo Feller, and Liam Talbot were second in their Audi R8, entered in the Pro-Am class; while Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, and Mikael Grenier’s Mercedes, and the WRT BMW teammates of Rossi, Marciello, and Weerts – Sheldon van der 🥀Linde, Kelvin van der Linde, and Augusto Farfus – were fourth.

The 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour g𝓡ets underway at 05:45 local time (AEDT) on 2 February; or 18:45 UTC on 1 February.

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