GruppeM Racing’s Mercedes will start from Pole Position for the Gulf 12h, the last seasonal event of the Intercontinental GT Challenge 2023 which takes place in Abu Dhabi.
A very hard-fought session in the four Qualifying heats staged in the evening at Yas Marina, with a long interruption of an hour in the second phase due to a bad accident involving Stefano Costantini as an unfortunate protagonist.
The representative of Centri Porsche Ticino/Car Collection Motorsport lost control of the Porsche #12 shortly after exiting the pits, colliding violently with the right-hand barriers and it took a long time to repair the guardrail, while the Roman went out on his legs, going to the medical center for a check-up as a precaution.
The third heat was also interrupted prematurely due to the accident that occurred 2′ from the end of the Mercedes #76 driven by Matthew Topham (7Tsix), which hit the wall when braking at turn 5 without suffering any physical consequences.
In the last one, where most of the best drivers got to work, the ranking changed a lot and with a time better than 1’51″272 the AMG #99 of Stolz/Grenier/Engel took the lead by narrowly beating less than 3 tenths behind the AMG #14 of 2 Seas Motorsport driven by Gounon/Götz/Schiller in a one-two of the all-PRO Class Star.
Photo by: SRO
#33 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (992): Antares Au, Tim Heinemann, Matteo Cairoli
With a majestic performance from Matteo Cairoli, the Porsche #33 of Herberth Motorsport obtains third place and will start from the Pole Positon of the PRO/AM category with the Como native sharing the wheel with Heinemann/Au, while at his side will be the BMW # 46 of Team WRT which sees Valentino Rossi teamed with Dries Vanthoor/Nick Yelloly.
Top5 also for the Mercedes #77 of Ferrari/Auer/Bird (Gruppe M), with the McLarens of Garage 59 (#88 Kirchhöfer/West/Prette) and Optimum Motorsport (#27 Bell/Radcliffe/Millroy) behind, respectively second and third PRO/AM but not registered with the IGTC.
Among the protagonists of the SRO series, the BMW #32 of Eng/Van Der Linde/Weerts (Team WRT) disappoints, finishing eighth overall, with the Porsche #21 of Car Collection Motorsport behind it taking the Pole in the AM category with Dressler/ Blattner/Sturm.
Photo by: SRO
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: Valentino Rossi, Dries Vanthoor, Nick Yelloly
The overall Top 10 also includes the McLaren #59 of Garage59 (B.Goethe/O.Goethe/Balfe/Sanson), fourth in the PRO/AM with the Ferrari 296 GT3 #11 of Kessel Racing (Fumanelli/Perera/Roda/Andrews) behind , the best of Maranello’s cars.
To complete the AM discussion, second place goes to the Porsche #7 of Herberth Motorsport (Allemann/Bohn/Renauer), 12th overall, and third to the Mercedes #3 of 2 Seas Motorsport (Al Khalifa/Loggie/Al Zubair).
The Gulf 12h will start on Sunday at 7.00 am Italian time and will be visible in live streaming on Motorsport.com.
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