Rossi, who was partnered by Nick Yelloly and Dries Vanthoor, was leading the Intercontinental GT Challenge finale going into its final four hours until the pedal box failure occurred as he was handing over to Yelloly.
That resulted in a slow pitstop, and his shorter co-drivers had to drive in a compromised fashion in their final stints.
Their WRT-run M4 finished second by 12.8s, having trailed by as much as 15s after the issue, which meant the pedals were stuck at their maximum setting for the rest of the race.
YEAH P2 🏆🍾 pic.twitter.com/exxul5v1sJ
— Valentino Rossi (@ValeYellow46) December 10, 2023
“At the end, it was a great weekend for us,” said Rossi. “The target was to make it to the podium and we were very strong, very fast. We had a close to perfect race.
“We could have also won and have been in P1. So, in the end, we are a little bit upset because we felt the taste of the victory but we had an issue with the pedal box and lost crucial seconds at the pit stop.
“This is a great shame because in the end we missed it by 12 seconds so it could have been a fantastic battle to the last lap. But anyway, it’s great, the car was very strong, the teamwork was as always very good and I enjoyed it a lot to race with Dries and Nick.
“It is great to finish the season with a podium. It is the sixth podium of the season. So, I am very happy about this season and about the improvement.”
GruppeM Racing’s Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Mikael Grenier won the event in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo over the Rossi crew’s #46 BMW.
Jules Gounon finished third to claim the Intercontinental GT Challenge title in his 2 Seas Motorsport-run Mercedes.
The race was marred by three huge single-car accidents, suffered by Shaun Balfe’s McLaren and the Porsches of Stephen Grove and Stefano Borghi.
