Watch: Valentino Rossi loses a door in bizarre Barcelona GT race incident

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi suffered a bizarre moment during last weekend’s Barcelona GT World Challenge race when the door of his BMW fell off.

The penultimate round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season took place in mixed conditions last weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Marking the final round of the Sprint Cup championship of the series, poor weather on Saturday forced the grid for Race 2 to be based on FP2 standings rather than qualifying.

Seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi and his team-mate Max Hesse finished 16th in Race 1 in the No.46 WRT BMW.

They started from 15th for Race 2, but endured a torrid afternoon after Rossi suffered a bizarre incident in the latter stages of the contest.

Running in 12th at the time, Rossi lost the left-hand driver’s side door from his BMW and drove the Barcelona circuit exposed.

Due to the safety concerns raised by driving without a door, Rossi was called into the pits for repairs.

This proved costly for the Italian and team-mate Hesse, with the car needing to be wheeled back into the WRT garage for the door to be refitted.

It’s not clear how the door became detached.

Speaking on his social media channels, a light-hearted Rossi said: “Everything happened this weekend, eh? But only bad things! Anyway…”

Rossi will be on track again for the final round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Portimao on 16-18 October.

He will be joined on track by four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen, who will step into the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes AMG for his debut in the series.

Verstappen, who won last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, is standing in as Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon are competing at Barcelona in the FIA World Endurance Championship instead.

It will mark Verstappen’s return to GT racing following his debut at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring earlier this year, where his victory hopes were dashed by a technical issue.

Verstappen said of sharing a track with Rossi: “I hope I get to see him. He’s a very cool guy, so I hope to catch up with him. 

“I mean it nice, but I do not hope to see him in the race, so that’s normally a good sign. I actually hope to see no one, to be just up front and do a good job. But you never know." 

Earlier today, the FIA confirmed that Rossi’s driver grading status has changed from Silver to Gold for the 2027 season, though this is likely to have little impact on his current plans.