Valentino Rossi’s BMW No.46 produced one of the weekend’s strangest moments at the GT World Challenge Europe event in Barcelona when its left-hand door detached during Race 2. Rossi was running 12th at the time and continued around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with the car open to the track environment, but was then called into the pits over the safety concern.

The race formed part of the championship’s penultimate 2026 round and also closed out the Sprint Cup. Saturday’s poor weather had already altered the normal procedure: instead of qualifying, the Race 2 starting order was taken from the FP2 classification. Rossi and Max Hesse had placed 16th in Race 1, then lined up 15th for the second contest.

WRT had to take the BMW back to its garage so the missing door could be fitted again, costing Rossi and Hesse valuable track time. The reason for the detachment has not been explained. Rossi responded to the episode in a light-hearted social-media post, saying that the weekend had delivered “only bad things”.

Portimao next for Rossi and Verstappen

Rossi is expected back on track for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup finale at Portimao on 16-18 October. Max Verstappen is also expected to make his series debut there in the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG. Verstappen said he would like to meet Rossi away from the racing action, while hoping not to encounter him during the contest because that would mean Rossi was ahead.

The FIA has also confirmed that Rossi’s driver grading will change from Silver to Gold for the 2027 season. That classification update is separate from the Barcelona incident and represents another development in the seven-time MotoGP champion’s GT racing career.