Jordan Love has had a challenging return to racing over the weekend with a run in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe’s season opener at Imola Raceway.
 
Racing for Haupt Racing Team, Love was behind the wheel of the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 alongside German driver Jannes Fittje and Briton Alain Valente, with the trio unable to get a clean run throughout the weekend.
 
With more than 50 cars contesting the event, there was plenty of traffic throughout qualifying, for which they couldn’t get a clear run – they eventually ended up 11th place in the Silver Cup class.
 
Love was then given the task of starting the race off and the West Australian showed his fighting spirit, making up 12 spots in the outright field to move to 31st.


Unfortunately, Love could only watch from the pits as the team dropped down the rankings when his teammates had their stints – the trio ultimately crossing the chequered flag in P13 for class and 37th outright.
 
Following on from the three-hour race, Love was disappointed with the result. 
 
“That's the first race of the season under our belts,” Love wrote on social media.
 
“I was in the car to start the race and had a good stint - we stayed out of trouble and moved forwards.
 
“Unfortunately it just wasn't our day but that's racing - we couldn't quite show our true pace with P13.
 
“It wasn't our day but we'll come back stronger for Paul Ricard.”
 
Love will be back behind the wheel for the series’ next round, which takes place at Circuit Paul Ricard for the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000km on 3-5 June.