Valentino Rossi fell short of a podium finish on his deb🔯ut in the World Endurance Championship.

Rossi and Team WRT teammates Maxime Ma🐷rtin a🅰nd Ahmed Al Harthy finished fourth in the season-opening Qatar 1812km.

MotoGP legend Rossi was behind the wheel of the BMW M4 in the LMGT3 claಌss which has been introduced for 2024.

This year✱, Rossi will compete in the World Endurance Championship and the GT World Challenge.

The 🍨addition o✅f his WEC commitments is with a view to racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans - one of his all-time dreams - later this year.

"That was my debut so I was excited," 🍸Rossi said to Eurosport.

"I felt good, ℱespecially in the first stint. I was fast.

"I kept a good pace. I felt good with the car.

"In the second stint, it was a bit more difficult because the track 🍌is very different compared to yesterday, because of a lot of r💎ubber and a lot of grip.

"So you stress the tyres more.

"In the 🐈second stint, it was more tricky. For some reason, I had more traffic.

"The condition of the track is in evolution. If you go💟 out of the line..."

Rossi, now aged 44, is into h♒is second season of four-wheel racing since retiring from MotoGP.

Building towards this yea🏅r's 24 Hours of Le Mans is his ongoing goal.