WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 conquers Hankook 12H ESTORIL

WTM by Rinaldi Racing has secured its second overall win in succession this weekend with CREVENTIC after a commanding run to victory in the inaugural Hankook 12H ESTORIL.

The WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (#22, Georg Weiss / Leonard Weiss / Jochen Krumbach / Torsten Kratz) took this morning’s race start from pole position after winning CREVENTIC’s 6H Qualifying Race on Friday, and scarcely put a foot wrong across today’s 12-hour endurance event, leading 393 of the completed 401 laps to take a storming win at the Hankook 12H ESTORIL. Jochen Krumbach also secured the event’s overall fastest lap – a 1m 37.302s – for the German team.

As well as securing Ferrari’s fifth win from seven official CREVENTIC events in Portugal since 2017, WTM by Rinaldi Racing also becomes the first GT team in 2023 to take more than one outright 24H SERIES race win.

“It was [a perfect weekend], definitely. Just a dream come true to drive a GT3 car and take two wins, with the [6H] Qualifying Race yesterday and the 12-hour today, it’s just been a fantastic weekend,” Torsten Kratz explained to radiolemans.com’s Peter Snowden. “We came here to see what this car could do, and from the first day it went very well. We worked nicely together as a team, and all my teammates did a great job. We had everything under control and the car was perfectly prepared, with a nice setup that [didn’t mistreat] the tyres. I have no words!”

Appropriately, a driver change in the closing 12 minutes meant team owner Georg Weiss drove the Ferrari across the line to collect the chequered flag.

“Yesterday 1st, today 1st,” Weiss continued. “The whole team did so well, and it was so nice to be here. It’s our seventh year with Ferrari, and they always do a great job.”

Reigning GT European Trophy winner Scherer Sport PHX (#1, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Christer Jöns) kept WTM honest throughout the 12-hour event to finish 2nd overall, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II finishing just over 90 seconds down on the race winner after unlapping itself on the penultimate tour. Despite intermittently struggling for grip, the Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (#8, Alessandro Cutrera / Marco Talarico / Marco Frezza / David Fumanelli / L.M.D.V.), runner-up in yesterday’s 6H Qualifying Race, secures its second consecutive 24H SERIES podium in 3rd.