Mercedes sweeps up the cups at the Gulf 12h, winning the race, the Drivers' championship and the Constructors' title in the last seasonal event of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge.
In Abu Dhabi the House of the Star was the author of a test worth remembering with its teams, beating the competition from BMW which did not shy away from the fight, but suffered some technical problems that made the difference.
The first to cross the finish line is the AMG GT3 #99 designed by GruppeM Racing of the Engel/Stolz/Grenier trio, taking the lead three hours from the end and capable of managing the margin accumulated over the BMW #46 of Team WRT shared by Valentino without worries. Rossi, Nick Yelloly and Dries Vanthoor, who got in front of everyone shortly before, but ran into trouble at the pit stop which caused her to lose the lead.
Vanthoor was the only one from BMW who could hope for the drivers' title against Jules Gounon, given how things had developed from mid-race onwards, but the Frenchman was enough to finish third overall to be crowned King PRO of the IGTC, thanks with the help of Maximilian Götz and Fabian Schiller at the wheel of the Mercedes #14 prepared by 2 Seas Motorsport.
Photo by: SRO
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: Valentino Rossi, Dries Vanthoor, Nick Yelloly
With the fourth place obtained by the #77 of GruppeM (Ferrari/Bird/Auer), the Star also takes home the Constructors' trophy, while BMW licks its wounds. A nice podium for Valentino, who did nothing wrong doing his job of leading the M4 at a good pace and leaving the attacks and fast laps to his teammates, until the pedal jammed at the ninth hour stop and slipped into the square. 'honor.
Instead, the exhaust problem suffered by little sister #32 screams revenge, which saw Philipp Eng aspire to the title with the help of Sheldon Van Der Linde and Charles Weerts, finishing outside the Top10 and at the bottom of the PROs with great disappointment.
In the absolute Top 10 there are also the winners of the other categories. In PRO/AM, the McLaren #27 of Optimum Motorsport with Radcliffe/Millroy/Bell celebrated by finishing sixth, followed by the Ferrari 296 #11 of Kessel Racing (Perera/Roda/Andrews/Fumanelli), the best of the Prancing Horse cars after penalties and emergency pit stop that the #25 of AF Corse had to make.
The Class podium was completed by Herberth Motorsport, who with the Porsche #33 featuring Matteo Cairoli together with Heinemann and Antares Au had to recover and make up ground, despite the time lost due to penalties and adverse situations.
Photo by: SRO
#93 Sky Tempesta McLaren 720 GT3 EVO: Kevin Tse, Eddie Cheever, Jonathan Hui, Chris Froggatt
The Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1 with Habul/Ellis/Konrad/Baumann is very bitter, returning to the pits in the last 15 minutes due to a technical problem and then stopping again on the track for a sad retirement and without the podium.
Au was defeated by Jonathan Hui in the IGTC Independent Cup, as the Sky Tempesta Racing driver placed the McLaren #93 fifth in the lot together with Froggatt/Cheever/Tse.
As for the AM Class, a super race for the Porsche #21 of Car Collection in the hands of Sturm/Dressler/Blattner, who crossed the finish line in 5th place overall and with a large advantage over the Mercedes #3 of 2 Seas Motorsport (Loggie /Al Khalifa/Al Zubair). It's a shame for the Porsche #7 of Herberth Motorsport, which was the protagonist for a long time with Renauer/Bohn/Allemann and then ended up third due to a Drive Through in the 10th hour.
The Porsches of Tsunami #79 and Grove Racing retired due to an accident, as did the McLaren #59 of Garage59 and in the final the Ferraris #51 and #61 of AF Corse, and #26 of Racing One. After the bangs of Qualifying, the Porsche #12 of Centri Porsche Ticino/Car Collection and the Mercedes #76 of 7TSix did not line up.
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