Porsche achieved another historic success by winning the Bathurst 12h, the first seasonal event of the 2024 Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Almost a month after the victory achieved at the 24h of Daytona with the 963 LMDh, on the legendary Mount Panorama the Weissach manufacturer manages to get the better of its rivals thanks to the super performance of the 911 GT3.R 992 #912 driven by local idol Matt Campbell , Ayhançan Güven and Laurens Vanthoor, in a day of glory for the Manthey EMA team given that the triumph of the 'old' 911 driven by Alessio Picariello, Harry King and Yasser Shahin (#911) in PRO-AM class.
It was a very tight race full of twists and turns, which began to follow one another after about 130' from the green flag, which as always occurred at dawn and the cars faced the first part in the dark with the sun rising on the wonderful Australian horizon.
The rain shuffled the cards further halfway through the race, which saw the intervention of the Safety Car 10 times, grouping everyone together and forcing the teams to review their strategies again and again.
With the track drying out twice, before a downpour brought everyone back to the pits to fit the grooved Pirellis, the finale was breathtaking and to be avoided by the faint of heart, but to be recommended to all racing enthusiasts. motoring.
The last SC arrived three quarters of an hour from the end and got out of the way with 30' on the clock: Campbell's coolness led him to pull away, placing a safety margin of 5″ over his fierce pursuers, giving him the opportunity to best administer the latest rounds.
#75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo: Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul, Luca Stolz
Photo by: Gruppe C GmbH
And to say that the strength of the Porsche, lightened by 10kg before the start after the same weight had been added to it on Saturday, could be appreciated right from the start, when Güven and Vanthoor had also conducted the operations, before Manthey EMA received a double Drive Through to serve.
The first in the 7th hour for a pit stop made under the minimum time, the second shortly after because the penalty had been observed when the SC was called into question, therefore repeating the operation and losing further time.
But the excellent strategies brought by the Porsche-Manthey EMA men, benefiting from the subsequent five neutralizations, put the 911 'Grello' back in front and Campbell was able to cross the finish line victorious to the joy of the Weissach standard bearers.
The fierce battle for second place saw the Sun Energy 1 Racing Mercedes emerge, first 12 months ago and now on the second step of the podium with the Gounon/Habul/Stolz trio. The AMG GT3 #75 didn't start very well, but it always managed to stay on the lead lap and close to the group of the best.
In the shuffling of positions with the SC intervening 4 hours from the end, it gave the Star car the opportunity to climb onto the podium and even lead for a few moments, before the Porsche took the lead again. Gounon also held his nerve at the restart, especially when behind him Jaxon Evans tried a desperate assault on 'The Chase' curve, which went badly for him too as Christopher Haase took advantage of it to steal third place from him.
The overall podium was then completed by the Audi #22 of Team MPC (not entered in the IGTC) with Haase/Talbot/K.Van Der Linde, who made a comeback in the second half of the race and with the German bringing joy to the R8 LMS.
#22 Melbourne Performance Center Audi R8 LMS Evo II: Christopher Haase, Kelvin van der Linde, Liam Talbot
Photo by: Gruppe C GmbH
Evans' attack which went terribly wrong not only forced the Phantom Global Racing standard-bearer to settle for fourth place in the #13 Porsche shared with Buus/Eriksson, but also cost the #46 BMW of Team WRT which with Maxime Martin had tried to take advantage of the situation by trying to pass Evans in the chaos triggered by the innocent Gounon.
The Belgian ran alongside the 911 on the straight, but found himself on the outside at Turn 1 and, putting two wheels on the grass to avoid contact, slipped into fifth place, while Haase passed Evans. A real shame because the M4 GT3 in which both Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello raced very well was the only one left in the race from Vincent Vosse's team.
The BMW #32 of Weerts/Vanthoor/S.Van Der Linde, which started from Pole and remained in a tussle for the podium until the 5th hour, ended up disastrously in the wall at the hairpin uphill towards the mountain, with Weerts hit by a lapped car which he had tried to parade outside (with SC entry to follow).
At the finish line, three more Mercedes followed, with the #888 of Feeney/Brown/Grenier (National Storage Racing) sixth, keeping behind the #222 of Waters/Lowndes/Randle (Scott Taylor Motorsport) and the #130 of Engel/Fraga /Reynolds (GruppeM Racing), the latter struggling with a series of penalties.
#46 Team WRT, BMW M4 GT3: Raffaele Marciello, Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi
Photo by: BMW Motorsport
A shame however for the AMG #77 of Craft-Bamboo, forced to pit in the last two hours due to a hit with the wall by Daniel Juncadella which damaged the left rear suspension, dropping back in the order.
In the overall Top 10 we therefore have the Porsche #911 of Manthey EMA, winning in the PRO-AM Class right at the last minute, also recovering from a spin. A Drive-Through imposed for infringement in the procedure of the last SC to the Mercedes #27 of Heart of Racing causes Riberas/Gunn/James to slip to second place in the category, remaining in the lead for a long time before a mocking finish.
The AMG of Triple Eight JMR also tastes bitter: the #88 was forced to slow down in the final stages due to damage to the splitter which had been repaired with adhesive tape in the last stop, so Whincup/Love/Ibrahim are unable to go beyond third place, but managing to save at least the podium since the #9 Audi of MPC (Holdsworth/Fiore/Cini) and the #48 Mercedes of MMotorsport (Wood/Brocq/Walden/McMillan) were far away.
#911 Manthey Racing / EMA Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2): Harry King, Alessio Picariello, Yasser Shahin
Photo by: Gruppe C GmbH
As regards the Silver Class, a great victory comes for Wall Racing, which fielded its new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 #93 for D'Alberto/Wall/Deyner/Deitz, who managed to extend their lead along the way to beat the Audi #44 of Valmont Racing/Tigani (Youlden/Shiels/Zalloua/Pires) and the Mercedes #47 of Supabarn/Tigani (Russell/Webb/J.Koundouris/T.Koundouris).
Finally, the Mercedes #19 of Team Nineteen-Prestige won the GT4 Class thanks to Griffith/Christodoulou/Bilski ahead of the McLaren Artura #230 of Method Motorsport (Hayman/McLennan/Schutte). Third were their teammates, Flack/Mostert/Bryan with the Artura #25.
Pos N. Team Piloti Auto
1 912 Manthey EMA L.Vanthoor/A.Guven/
M.Campbell Porsche 992 GT3R PRO 275 12:01:22.0968 132 2:03.0645
2 75 SunEnergy1 K.Habul/J.Gounon/
L.Stolz Mercedes-AMG GT3 PRO 275 12:01:24.7304 63 2:03.2615
3 22 Wash It Team MPC L.Talbot/C.Haase/
K.van der Linde Audi R8 LMS Evo II PRO 275 12:01:25.8759 24 2:03.3176
4 13 Phantom Global Racing J.Eriksson/J.Evans/
B.Buus Porsche 992 GT3R PRO 275 12:01:27.5006 58 2:02.9897*
5 46 Team WRT V.Rossi/M.Martin/
R.Marciello BMW M4 GT3 PRO 275 12:01:27.9663 31 2:03.3179
6 888 National Storage Racing B.Feeney/W.Brown/
M.Grenier Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo PRO 275 12:01:29.4263 84 2:03.5313
7 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport C.Waters/C.Lowndes/
T.Randle Mercedes-AMG GT3 PRO 275 12:01:38.2583 19 2:04.2813
8 130 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM M.Engel/F.Fraga/
D.Reynolds Mercedes-AMG GT3 PRO 275 12:01:52.7166 85 2:03.3568
9 911 The Bend Manthey EMA A.Picariello/H.King/
Y.Shahin Porsche 991 GT3R Spe PAM 274 12:02:00.9098 148 2:03.2480
10 27 Heart of Racing by SPS A.Riberas/R.Gunn/
I.James Mercedes-AMG GT3 PAM 274 12:02:30.4313 118 2:03.8223
11 88 Triple Eight JMR J.Whincup/J.Love/
J.Ibrahim Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo PAM 274 12:02:59.2924 145 2:03.4939
12 93 Wall Racing T.D'Alberto/D.Wall/
G.Denyer/A.Deitz Lamborghini Huracan SIL 273 12:02:36.4909 106 2:03.8670
13 9 Hallmarc Team MPC L.Holdsworth/D.Fiore/
M.Cini Audi R8 LMS Evo II PAM 270 12:01:23.5852 49 2:03.7707
14 44 Valmont Racing/Tigani M'sport L.Youlden/B.Shiels/
M.Zalloua/S.Pires Audi R8 LMS SIL 270 12:01:53.1097 24 2:04.6420
15 47 Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani D.Russell/J.Webb/
J.Koundouris/
T.Koundouris Mercedes-AMG GT3 SIL 268 12:01:58.7227 26 2:05.1340
16 48 MMotorsport G.Wood/J.Le Brocq/
G.Walden/J.McMillan Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO PAM 259 12:02:45.2693 20 2:04.7508
17 19 Prestige Iveco M.Griffith/
A.Christodoulou/
D.Bilski Mercedes-AMG GT4 GT4 253 12:02:03.1843 29 2:14.5097
18 230 Method Motorsport T.Hayman/T.McLennan/
E.Schutte McLaren Artura GT4 GT4 252 12:01:56.8704 37 2:17.1339
19 20 T2 Racing / Localsearch C.Sbirrazzuoli/
D.Jilesen/A.Hargraves IRC GT INV 245 12:03:02.2293 83 2:07.2827
20 702 IRC / TekworkX Motorsport D.Stutterd/P.Tracy/
G.Emery/M.Twigg IRC GT INV 233 12:02:04.3997 45 2:09.4472
21 10 SUPAGLASS RACING N.Percat/C.Hill/
J.Holinger IRC GT INV 222 12:03:06.9567 30 2:06.7217
22 25 Method Motorsport M.Flack/C.Mostert/
J.Bryan McLaren Artura GT4 GT4 217 12:02:58.2208 28 2:14.7214
23 701 Vortex L.Amrouche/J.Boillot/
P.Bonnel Vortex Vortex 1.0 INV 212 12:03:00.3802 56 2:17.3648
NC 77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo D.Juncadella/J.Ojeda/
M.Goetz Mercedes-AMG GT3 PRO 223 09:57:41.0598 17 2:03.6375
NC 2 KFC Team MPC B.Schumacher/
M.Winkelhock/R.Feller Audi R8 LMS Evo II PRO 216 09:37:30.2597 17 2:03.6176
NC 111 MRA Motorsport / 111 Racing D.Currie/R.Gray/
G.Donaldson Marc II 2023 INV 198 09:57:20.9053 100 2:07.2346
NC 32 Team WRT C.Weerts/D.Vanthoor/
S.van der Linde BMW M4 GT3 PRO 120 04:47:46.7614 61 2:03.4847
NC 91 Wheels FX Racing T.Slade/C.McLeod/
H.Morrall/K.Kassulke Marc II 0 INV 85 03:20:00.0847 29 2:06.2891
NC 56 Ginetta Australia P.Buccini/A.Zerefos/
C.White/O.Hizzey Ginetta G56 GT4 GT4 83 05:30:58.5650 81 2:17.8606
#IGTC #Porsche #stronger #Bathurst #12h
