GruppeM triumphs at Gulf 12 Hours

The curtains of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge season came down with the goodbye to the Gulf 12 Hours, and GruppeM Racing capitalized in the long run with a win for the No. 99 Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Luca Stolz, Mikael Grenier and Maro Engel.
 
The No. 99 GruppeM Mercedes led the first lap but as the No. 46 WRT BMW did, they stopped right on the first lap to comply with the race’s peculiar pit stop rules, and the lead kept changing over the course of the first hour, with the No. 88 Garage 59 McLaren staying on top for the most time. The first two hours showed the first major casuality of the race, with the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren losing the rear over the kerbs and going straight to the barrier.
 
With an hour spent on barrier repairs at the crash site as the No. 4 Grove Porsche also met the Turn 1 barriers, most of the teams opted to do the second stop to tick off the mandatory service , which promoted the No. 7 Herberth Porsche to the lead and the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes to second, but under the third round of pit stops they swapped positions while the No. 21 Car Collection Porsche took the overall lead along with the Am Cup top spot.
 
The No. 21 stood on top for two hours and a half when the No. 14 2Seas Mercedes finally caught up with it thanks to to Maximilian Götz, with the lead over the hours as the sunset came and so did the night time, with some good time being spent behind the Safety car as the No. 79 Tsunami RT Porsche faced the barriers of the back straight, but in between the stops under the neutralization period the No. 46 WRT BMW took the lead with Valentino Rossi at the wheel, a result of many hours of pursuit.
 
The No. 99 GruppeM Mercedes was then the star of the night, staying with the lead from the ninth hour onwards, and while Dries Vanthoor took the last two stints to extract the best of the No. 46 WRT BMW, the offensive wasn’t enough to close the gap to Maro Engel.
 
Gulf 12 Hours - Race results
 
The No. 21 Car Collection Porsche commanded the Am Cup with an overall top 5 finish while the No. 27 Optimum McLaren won the Pro-Am Cup, with the No. 33 Herberth Porsche being the best IGTC Pro-Am Cup car and the sister No. 7 Porsche being the best IGTC Am Cup entry.
 

The podium conquered at Yas Marina was more than enough for Jules Gounon to secure the title from the No. 14 2Seas Mercedes, scoring 91 points against Luca Stolz’ 83 and Dries Vanthoor’s 80. Mercedes barely beat BMW for the Manufacturers title as the score was 164 vs. 159, and Jonathan Hui has beaten Antares Au for the Independents Cup.
 
The IGTC returns in 2024 with Bathurst 12 Hour on 18 February.
 
PHOTOS: SRO