The Gulf 12h will have 28 GT3s on the starting grid next weekend, when the Intercontinental GT Challenge titles will also be awarded on the Yas Marina track.
In Abu Dhabi from 8 to 10 December the spotlight will mainly be on the protagonists of the SRO Motorsports Group series, who join those selected by the event promoter, Driving Force Events.
In the PRO ranking, the chase will be all on Jules Gounon who leads with an 8 point advantage. At Mercedes-AMG Motorsport they have entered the Frenchman in the #14 car of 2 Seas Motorsport together with Maximilian Goetz and Fabian Schiller, perhaps counting on the help of his colleagues from Gruppe M Racing who field the #77 of Auer/Bird/Ferrari and the #99 where Luca Stolz cultivates his last hopes of success in a crew with Engel/Grenier, given that the German is fourth at -18.
BMW M Motorsport had to make choices because in second place in the standings is Philipp Eng, while in third at -14 we find Sheldon Van Der Linde and Dries Vanthoor. The Austrian has been placed in the car with the South African (who will therefore not be able to win the title) and Charles Weerts in the #32 M4, while the Belgian will play out his last hopes by driving the #46 together with Valentino Rossi and Nick Yelloly.
Going down among the numerous PRO/AM, Jonathan Hui is leader of the Independent Cup and will defend the top with the Sky Tempesta Racing McLaren #93 shared with Froggatt/Tse/Cheever, trying to repel the assaults of the Porsche drivers.
Among these, keep an eye out for Antares Au, second at -11, and Stephen Grove, third at -16, respectively armed with the 911 of Herberth Motorsport #30 (with Heinemann/Cairoli) and EBM-Grove #4 (with Brenton Grove and Richie Stanaway) .
Porsche also has the #12 of Car Collection Motorsport (Hash/Costantini/Fontana/Mettler) and the #7 of Herberth Motorsport (Allemann/Bohn/Renauer) entered in the AM Class on track, while Mercedes responds with the PRO/AM Habul/ Ellis/Konrad/Baumann of SunEnergy1 Racing #75.
As regards the IGTC Constructors’ ranking, BMW leads the way at 133, compared to 124 for Mercedes. The Porsche is further behind at 79.
Photo by: BMW Motorsport
#46 Team WRT, BMW M4 GT3: Valentino Rossi
As we were saying, the aforementioned members are joined by a very large number that the promoter had to choose from among the many requests received in recent months.
In PRO/AM there will be no shortage of Ferraris, with the 296 of AF Corse for Cozzi/Rovera/Sernagiotto/Pulcini, Racing One (Jackson/Jefferies/Azzam/Jaffer) and Kessel Racing (Perera/Roda/Andrews/Fumanelli and Broniszewski/Schiró /Rigon), plus the three ‘Reds’ that the Piacenza team has in Class AM, with two 296s and a 488, the latter model also chosen by Baron Motorsport.
Added to the Porsches is that of Tsunami RT, the McLarens are also for Garage 59 and Optimum Motorsport, while there is only one Audi entered by HaasRT for AM, with Mercedes also brought into the race by MP Racing with all the drivers from the Gostner family (father Thomas plus his children Manuela, Corinna and David), 7Tsix and 2 Seas Motorsport with his private AM companies.
The program
In the United Arab Emirates we start rolling on Thursday evening with a first private test session, followed by three more on Friday for those who want.
It starts to get serious on Saturday, with Free Practice and Qualifying (divided into four phases for each driver, with the crew’s average times to define the starting grid), while Sunday is the day of the race. Taking into account the 3 hour time difference that separates us from the Gulf, here are the Italian timetables for the activities on the track.
Qualifying and the race will be broadcast live on Motorsport.com.
THURSDAY 7 DECEMBER
Test 1 – 4.30pm-5.30pm
FRIDAY 8 DECEMBER
Test 2 – 10;15-11;15
Test 3 – 12;15-13;15
Test 4 – 2.30pm-4.30pm
SATURDAY 9 DECEMBER
Free Practice 1 – 8.15am-9.15am
Free Practice 2 – 11.20-12.20
Qualifying – 3.00pm (live streaming on Motorsport.com)
SUNDAY 10 DECEMBER
Race – 7.00am-7.00pm (live streaming on Motorsport.com)
![Kessel Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3](https://cdn-6.motorsport.com/images/mgl/2jX57796/s1000/kessel-racing-ferrari-296-gt3.jpg)
Photo by: Kessel Racing
Kessel Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3
GULF 12h – LIST OF REGISTRANTS
In italics the participants in the Intercontinental GT Challenge
CLASS | TEAM | CAR | PILOTS |
GT3 Pro | Mercedes-AMG 2 Seas | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Jules Gounon – Maximilan Goetz – Fabian Schiller |
GT3 Pro | Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Lucas Auer – Lorenzo Ferrari – Frankie Bird |
GT3 Pro | Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Maro Engel – Luca Stolz – Mikael Grenier |
GT3 Pro | Team WRT | BMW M4 GT3 | Philipp Eng – Sheldon Van Der Linde – Charles Weerts |
GT3 Pro | Team WRT | BMW M4 GT3 | Valentino Rossi – Dries Vanthoor – Nick Yelloly |
GT3 ProAm | AF Corse | Ferrari 296 GT3 | Alessandro Cozzi – Alessio Rovera – Giorgio Sernagiotto – Marco Pulcini |
GT3 ProAm | Car Collection Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | HASH – Stefano Costantini – Alex Fontana – Yannick Mettler |
GT3 ProAm | Grove Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | Stephen Grove – Brenton Grove – Richie Stanaway |
GT3 ProAm | Garage 59 | McLaren 720 GT3 EVO | Benjamin Goethe – Oliver Goethe – Shaun Balfe – Mark Sansom |
GT3 ProAm | Garage 59 | McLaren 720 GT3 EVO | Alexander West – Marvin Kirchhoefer – Louis Prette |
GT3 ProAm | Sky Storm | McLaren 720 GT3 EVO | Kevin Tse – Eddie Cheever – Jonathan Hui – Chris Froggatt |
GT3 ProAm | Herberth Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | Antares Au – Tim Heinemann – Matteo Cairoli |
GT3 ProAm | Kessel Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | Anton Dias Perera – Giorgio Roda – Scott Andrews – David Fumanelli |
GT3 ProAm | Kessel Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | Michael Broniszewski – Niccolo Schiró – Davide Rigon |
GT3 ProAm | Optimum Motorsport | McLaren 720S GT3 | Mark Radcliffe – Ollie Millroy – Rob Bell |
GT3 ProAm | RacingOne | Ferrari 296 GT3 | Omar Jackson – Axcil Jefferies – Ramez S. Azzam – Zaamin Jaffer |
GT3 ProAm | Sun Energy 1 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Kenny Habul – Philip Ellis – Martin Konrad – Dominik Baumann |
GT3 Am | 2 Seas Motorsports | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Isa Al Khalifa – Ian Loggie- Al Faisal Al Zubair |
GT3 Am | 7Tsix | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Wayne Marrs – Matthew Topham – Ameerh Naran – Tom Jackson |
GT3 Am | AF Corse | Ferrari 296 GT3 | Christian Colombo – David Tjiptobiantoro – Lilou Wadoux – Stephane Lemeret |
GT3 Am | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GT3 | Nicola Marinangeli – Kriton Lendoudis – Christoph Ulrich – Alex Fox |
GT3 Am | AF Corse | Ferrari 296 GT3 | Laurent De Meeus – Jean Claude Saada – Conrad Grunewald – Miguel Ramos |
GT3 Am | Baron Motorsports | Ferrari 488 GT3 | Ernst Kirchmayr – Axel Sartingen – Daniele di Amato – Philippe Prette |
GT3 Am | Car Collection Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | Dustin Blattner – Constantin Dressler – Joel Sturm |
GT3 Am | HaasRT | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | Gregory Guilvert – Miika Panu – Xavier Knauf – Gregory Servais |
GT3 Am | Herberth Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3-R (991.II) | Daniel Allemann – Ralf Bohn – Alfred Renauer |
GT3 Am | MP Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Thomas Gostner – Manuela Gostner – Corinna Gostner – David Gostner |
GT3 Am | Tsunami RT | Porsche 911 GT3-R (991.II) | Johannes Zelger – Davide Scannicchio – Marco Cassará – Stefano Borghi |
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