Ultimately,🍰 Rossi and team-mates Dries Vanthoor anꦍd Nick Yelloly were denied victory by 12 seconds to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Mikael Grenier.

However, that final margin didn’t t༒ell the whole story.

Rossi had taken the race le🔯ad after 7.5 hours, then maintained his advantage throughout theไ one-hour stint, when he then handed over to Yelloly.

However, a problem with the pedal box cost the team 15 seconds during the pit stop, and they slipped back t༒o second🧜 place.

Although the trio kept the victory fight alive during the remaining hours, the𒆙y were unable to catch the Mercedes.

“Finishing a 12-hour race 12 seconds behind the leader after we had💯 the techꦉnical issue with that car at a pit stop losing 15 seconds or so feels a bit bitter-sweet but at the end we had a strong race,” said team principal Vincent Vosse.

Although Rossi had achieved his podium aims, The Doctor admitted he and his team-mates were “a little bit upset” to see🐭 victory slip away.

“At the end, it was a great weekend for us,” said the seven-time 🐷MotoGP ಌchampion.

“The target was to make it to the podium and we were very strong🐭, very fast. We had a close to perfect𒊎 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 c♚rucial seconds at🔜 the pit stop.

“This is a great shame because in the end𝓀 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 𓄧was 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 improvementꦿ.”