MANAMAURI ENERGY BY EBIMOTORS Leads In Italy After Dramatic First Seven Hours Of Michelin 12H MUGELLO

Hugely unpredictable wet-weather throughout today’s first part of the Michelin 12H MUGELLO made for an absolutely incredible start to the 2025 Michelin 24H SERIES European Series season, with the concluding five hours of action to come at the Italian track tomorrow, Sunday, 23 March.

At the end of seven dramatic hours of racing, the No.95 MANAMAURI ENERGY BY EBIMOTORS Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) leads overnight, as well as the PRO-AM class, from the No.8 CCC Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Also ending part one of the race on the lead lap is the AM class No.27 Heart of Racing by SPS Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.

Starting on a damp track, with drizzling rain in the air, the race roared into life with pole-qualifying David Fumanelli holding the lead through Turn One for CCC Kessel Racing. Manuel Lauck stormed into second from fifth on the grid in the No.73 Proton Huber Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and the lead duo did begin to gap the rest.

From lap three on, Fumanelli put his stamp on proceedings and built an advantage of more than 20 seconds while Josef Kral, driving the No.56 Scuderia Praha Ferrari 296 GT3, had rocketed through the order from 14th on the grid. He passed Lauck for second prior to the first Code 60 of the race.

No sooner had the action resumed, two more Code 60s were required with separate spins for a couple of the 992 class Porsches. When racing got back underway once more early in hour two, differing pit strategies for fuel and tyres through the Code 60s were already making a big impact.

Kral led by 45 seconds from the ARC Bratislava Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO, driven by Jiatong Liang, with Alessandro Cutrera third in the CCC Kessel Racing Ferrari. Rain started to fall more heavily and persistently, Cutrera spinning but continuing with an hour and 20 minutes gone. Kral continued to lead, now from the No.29 Pellin Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 with Kyle Marcelli at the wheel.

Jake Hill had been busily slicing his way through the order in the Era Motorsport No.81 Ferrari 296 GT3, the fastest driver on track midway through hour two, and when Ryan Dalziel took over from the reigning British Touring Car Champion, he continued the high level of performance up to fourth.

So challenging were the slippery conditions, several more Code 60s followed which meant the order chopped and changed again. Approaching the three hour mark Lauck led for Proton Huber by 45 seconds with Felice Jemini second for Pellin Racing in the No.29 car, while the MANAMAURI ENERGY BY EBIMOTORS Porsche moved into the picture in the hands of Sergiu Nicolae.

The unpredictable wet, drying, and wet-again conditions really did seem to be playing into the hands of the Porsche entries and soon enough MANAMAURI, now with Sabino de Castro driving, took the lead of the race.

With two and a half hours to run, Jorg Dreisow spun out of third in the Proton Huber Porsche and hit the wall – but great work from the team did enable the car to eventually rejoin the action. Nicolae was back behind the wheel of the MANAMAURI Porsche as hour five ended, a lap to the good over Cutrera in the No.8 Ferrari, with the Heart of Racing by SPS entry now third.

With just over 90 minutes remaining, and the track drying again, thoughts turned to slick Michelin tyres. The No.29 Pellin Racing Ferrari was the first to gamble but Jelmini spun on his out lap and, to add insult to injury, rain returned around the same time. Even so, the Era Motorsport Ferrari also went with slicks with Hill entering the action in 10th place.

Switching the tyres on almost immediately, Hill found the grip and began to reel off superb times as he ultimately sliced his way into the top five overall and third in PRO-AM. MANAMAURI stayed with wets for de Castro, the team holding a good advantage, but Marco Frezza in the CCC Kessel Racing Ferrari took slicks at his last stop and set the fastest lap so far – 1m54.713 seconds.

Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II ended the first seven hours in fourth overall, second in the AM class, ahead of Era’s Ferrari 296 GT3. Alexander Prinz in HOFOR Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO was involved in a late tangle, dropping the car to seventh.

992:
Rik Breukers produced a fantastic opening to the race in the pole qualifying Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), inside the overall top 10 by lap four and mixing it brilliantly with many of the top GT3 class cars. Soon up into eighth overall, Breukers stayed around the outright top 10 and then made his first stop at the 50-minute mark when a Code 60 was called.

There were two more Code 60s in quick succession, the third one of those caused when the No.992 Porsche Baltic entry with Robertas Kupcikas at the wheel spun into the gravel at Turn One – almost wiping out Breukers’ car which was on his outside.

Martin Rump took the lead of the class in the Muhlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), before Tom Coronel in the MDM Motorsport car moved into first after the subsequent stops. He ran ahead of Fabian Danz for Red Camel-Jordans.nl and Valters Zviedris in the Mulhner entry.

The 992 lead continued to change hands as the varying strategies played their part, and as the first portion of the race passed half-distance Luc Breukers led for Red Camel by around 10 seconds from Julian Hanses in the Muhlner Porsche. Unfortunately for Breukers though, a lack of grip into Turn One while dicing with a GT3 class Ferrari meant he went through the gravel and Hanses pounced.

Even so, there was still little to choose between the top two and the No.909 moved back ahead with less than two hours to go, now with Rik Breukers at the wheel. He latterly pitted with 50 minutes to go to switch onto slick Michelins and hand the car to Fabian Danz. Rump, meanwhile, got back in the Muhlner car and at the flag he was sixth overall a lap to the good over Danz. Despite a series of spins in the tricky conditions, the SebLajoux Racing entry managed to end in third, leading the AM class.

GTX and GT4:
Starting from a clear GTX pole, 12th position overall, Arnaud Gomez ensured the No.702 Vortex 2.0 led the class very comfortably but on lap two, while holding an outright 11th place, a spin dropped Gomez down to the tail of the top 20. Quickly getting back up to speed, he worked his way up the overall order and continued to dominate from the 111 Racing IRC GT entry.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though for the Vortex, early in hour three an unfortunate excursion for Olivier Gomez led to a significant loss of time and when the No.702 had been recovered it had plummeted down to 25th overall – still though several laps ahead of the sister No.701 Vortex 2.0.

Unfortunately, the challenge of the IRC GT was badly impacted late in hour two and then early in hour three when Grant Donaldson had a couple of excursions – twice making contact with the barriers in the tricky wet conditions. The car was recovered to the pits and great work by the 111 Racing crew enabled the IRC GT to re-enter the action with just under three and a half hours to go.

The Gomez brothers bossed the first seven hours of GTX, and the No.702 goes into tomorrow’s action 14th in the overall classification and some 11 laps ahead of the sister No.701 piloted by Philippe Bonnel, Cyril Calmon and Lionel Amrouche – which had a late trip into the gravel.

In GT4, Matthew George starred at the beginning and from third in class and 31st overall on the grid he stormed into the class lead – gaining seven outright places on the first tour in the Venture-run Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Making two pit stops versus one each for rivals Lotus PB Racing and CCS Racing during the early going, George dropped to third as Alberto Naska moved to the lead in hour two in the Lotus Emira GT4. Enjoying a close battle with Nikolas Gebhardt in the CCS Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, halfway through hour two Gebhardt went off into the gravel and lost a lot of time.

Massimo Abbati led for Lotus in hour three, Jim Gebhardt had taken over the CCS Racing car from son Nikolas and was second with Matthew Higgins third in the Venture Mercedes. Only half a minute separated the trio and Gebhardt then moved to the head of the group as a great scrap continued, before the order changed again with Abbati taking the lead and then Higgins following suit.

George took over the No.421 Venture car again and led by over a couple of minutes with two and a half hours to run, he and Higgins ensuring the Mercedes-AMG GT4 goes into the concluding five hours leading by a lap from CCS Racing – Venture making good use of the Code 60s. The Lotus Emira did drop out of contention but remains in the race.