The Car Collection Motorsport Porsche #21 leads the Gulf 12h, the last seasonal event of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge taking place in Abu Dhabi.
At the start Antares Au had a problem, losing several positions with the #33 Porsche and behind him a contact between the #11 Ferrari of Giorgio Roda and the #93 McLaren of Chris Froggatt saw the latter go into a spin.
The strategy games began immediately among the IGTC PROs competing for the title: the Mercedes of GruppeM #99 and #77, plus the 14 of 2 Seas Motorsport immediately made the first stop, imitated by the BMWs #46 and # 32 of WRT in order to subsequently shorten the last stint.
This allowed the McLaren #88 of Garage 59 driven by Louis Prette to take command of the operations and stand out in the PRO/AM Class ahead of the Porsche #4 of its category rival Brenton Grove (Grove Racing) and the Audi #2 of Haas RT that Miika Panu put in front of AM.
A brief Full Course Yellow midway through the first hour served to remove a pin that had fallen in the third sector, but the first major incident occurred 15′ later, when Shaun Balfe lost control of his McLaren on the outside curb of Turn 1, ending up spinning and violently impacting the barriers on the left.
The Garage59 standard bearer came out limping from the wreck of the 720S #59 and here the GruppeM Mercedes took advantage of the situation to stop a second time, as did some who had not yet made the first stop (Grove was the quickest to react, among those in front). . The Safety Car then came into action, restarting the race on lap 33 after almost 20 minutes into the second hour.
Just enough time to complete one lap and Stephen Grove lost control of his Porsche when braking into Turn 1, hitting the inside guardrail and in turn destroying the 911 #4. Debris everywhere and new FCY/SC, with other stops to further mix up the ranking.
The restart took place almost at the beginning of the 3rd hour and there was no shortage of brawls on the track. A collision between the McLarens of Alexander West (#88 Garage59) and Mark Radcliffe (#27 Optimum Motorsport) in Turn 5 sent the latter into a spin and resulted in a 10″ penalty for the former.
The Porsche #7 of Herberth Motorsport (infringement in FCY), the Ferrari #25 of AF Corse and the Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1 also had to pay 5″ penalties at the pit stop for track limits not respected.
With the round of pit stops starting again on different laps, the Car Collection Motorsport Porsche #21 is currently in the lead, which at the restart from the last SC was already leading the AM Class as well.
Second at 30″ from the top is the McLaren #27 i Optimum Motorsport, first in the PRO/AM, with the Porsche #7 of Herberth Motorsport behind it, on the AM podium and also first among the IGTC entries, while the #33 who was behind him suffered a puncture at the end of the hour coming down the order.
This gave second place PRO/AM to the #88 McLaren of Garage59, which has the PRO trio behind it vying for the IGTC title. Here the Mercedes #14 of 2 Seas Motorsport took the lead, passing the BMW #46 of WRT during the stint of a consistent Valentino Rossi, who now dropped to make room for Nick Yelloly, chased by Philipp Eng with the BMW #32 .
Also in the Top10 are the Audi #2 of Haas RT, eighth overall and second AM, followed by its category rival, the Mercedes #3 of 2 Seas, which has the AMG #75 of Sun Energy 1 behind, which completes the podium PRO/AM, even if Alessio Rovera is catching up on her at the wheel of the Ferrari 296 #25 of AF Corse, the best of the Cavallino’s standard bearers.
In the meantime, we would like to point out that the Porsche #12 of Centri Porsche Ticino/Car Collection Motorsport and the Mercedes #76 of 7TSix did not start after the accidents involving Stefano Costantini and Matthew Topham respectively in Qualifying.
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