Perfectly Judged Win For Porsche Squad Herberth Motorsport In Exciting Michelin 6H Abu Dhabi
Herberth Motorsport perfectly navigated a race peppered with numerous incidents and Code 60 cautionary periods at Yas Marina Circuit today to emerge with an excellent Michelin 6H ABU DHABI victory for the No.10 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Loek Hartog, Antares Au and Huub van Eijndhoven.
In an ever-changing battle of wits and strategy as well as performance, the German squad’s winning trio were in the fight for victory from the outset when Hartog surged into the lead from fourth on the grid. Notably, the success came precisely 10 years to the day since Au made his motor racing debut and the race also marked van Eijndhoven’s maiden outing in GT3 endurance competition.
“In the end we had so many Code 60s we could make it to the end [with fuel]”, said Hartog, “Fair play to everyone, this was really a team victory – we did well along the way. It’s been really fun to be honest, we managed to seize the opportunity and do well.”
Au added: “It’s all about the people, we have a great team, great drivers, and this was Huub’s first GT3 race – I’m glad we started him on the right track! Ten years ago I started my racing career, literally to this very day. That was a P2 then, this is a P1, so it’s a good step!”
Herberth earned double spoils with its No.269 Porsche 911 of Max Moritz, Vincent Kolb and Sven Muller winning GT3 PRO-AM in sixth place. The overall podium was completed with the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper in second, and the Into Africa Racing by Dragon Ferrari 296 GT3 of Axcil Jefferies, Stuart White and Xollie Letlaka.
Success in GT3 AM went to fourth placed HAAS RT and its No.21 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Peter and Nicolas Guelinckx and Amir Feyzulin. Middle Eastern delight came for Qatar’s QMMF by HRT Performance in 992, its Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) coming to prominence over the last couple of hours to take outright and 992 AM victory with Ahmed Al-Emadi, Jassim Al-Thani and Faesal Al Yafei.
The GTX class was a race of attrition and although not taking the flag, the win was claimed by Vortex V8’s Lionel Amrouche and Julien Boillot. Cerny Motorsport’s Henry Cerny, Florian Sternkopf, Joshua Bednarski and Ivan Krapivtsev won GT4 in the BMW M4 GT4 (G82), while TCE-TCX victory was taken by Chazel Technologie’s Alpine A110 Cup of Benoist Rousset, Loic Labeda and Xavier Follenfant.
In terms of the overall championship ahead of next weekend’s Middle East Trophy finale in Dubai, Herberth’s No.10 entry leads GT3. Remember, points in Dubai will be awarded at mid-distance as well as the chequered flag and teams take their two best finishes from the three races contested.
GT3
Winward Racing’s dominant front row qualifying lock-out was swiftly penetrated, Hartog storming through from fourth to grab the lead on the outside at Turn One. Benjamin Paque, from third, took second out of Turn Two in the TFT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, with McIntosh third for WRT.
The pole-starting No.81 Winward Mercedes-AMG slipped to fourth, Rinat Salikhov at the wheel, while Sergey Stolyarov dropped out of the top six in the sister No.16 car. Contact in the pack at Turn Five then led to a very early Code 60. Racing resumed 15 minutes later, Paque right on the tail of Hartog, but McIntosh had oddly slipped back from the lead duo during the Code 60.
As things settled, Hartog made hay and began to pull clear. At the end of the first hour he was nicely in control while Paque led PRO-AM in second and, in eighth overall, Philipp Baron headed AM in the Baron Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3. Another Code 60 then triggered a flurry of stops.
Au took over the No.10 Porsche and led but Patrick Charlaix in the TFT Mercedes was slow to get going when the Code 60 ended, losing several places. More Code 60 periods were required in fairly short order and into hour three the order had shuffled significantly with Ralf Bohn in Herberth’s third Porsche now leading. That was short-lived, though, when front end repairs were required.
After more Code 60s through mid-distance, Herberth’s No.10 Porsche, WRT’s BMW and Herberth’s No.269 Porsche held the top three spots – the cars piloted by Au, Harper and Muller respectively. The ninth Code 60 then came with less than two and a half hours to go.
One of the biggest twists of the race arrived soon after – qualifying kings Winward retired both of the team’s Mercedes-AMGs in the space of just a few minutes of each other. The No.16 had sustained front-end damage when a car pulled out directly in front of Maro Engel at the fuel station, while the No.81 Mercedes was pulled into the pit garage with issues of its own.
More significant drama came with under two hours to run, several cars making contact between Turns Four and Five – triggering a lengthy Code 60. When racing resumed, with 75 minutes to go, Moritz led in the No.269 Herberth Porsche but the second placed WRT BMW had pitted for fuel.
Therefore the No.21 Audi R8, Feyzulin driving, moved up from third and the Into Africa Racing by Dragon Ferrari also featured evermore strongly as some of the early contenders faltered. More Code 60s came in the final hour, the last one with just 11 minutes to run, but Hartog was untroubled and claimed the win by 41 seconds.
Thompson in the BMW grabbed second on the road from Feyzulin with a couple of laps to go, and the Audi just missed the overall podium due to time penalties, elevating the Ferrari. Fifth went to the Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport Audi of Alex Aka, Vasily Vladykin and Alex Novichkov.
992
Disaster struck Red Camel-Jordans.nl almost immediately when 992 class pole-starting driver Rik Breukers was hit at Turn Five on the first lap. Damaging the steering of the No.909 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), as well as the left side radiator and suspension, this triggered the early Code 60.
Alessandro Ghiretti in the EBM Porsche therefore led 992 at the resumption, from Jon Lancaster in the 992 AM class No.932 HRT Performance entry. Paul Meijer made a scorching start for Muhlner Motorsport – rising to third from ninth through the first few corners – and he soon took second.
Ghiretti continued to lead at the end of the first hour, with Meijer close behind, as 992 AM leader Lancaster started to be harried by Felix Neuhofer in the No.985 Neuhofer Rennsport car. Meijer was as quick as ever, producing an excellent double-stint and taking the lead from EBM’s Josh Berry.
Meijer started to dominate and Muhlner remained at the front when Mark J Thomas got into the car for his first race mileage. Just before the halfway point, though, the No.921 Porsche ground to a halt due to a speed sensor issue and the squad was unable to recover.
Into the second half of the race, Razoon – More Than Racing led 992 for the first time with Vladislav Lomko at the wheel. Berry kept EBM well within reach and the latter car moved into the 992 lead and stayed there with Ghiretti driving. However, an 85 second penalty for a fueling infringement during a Code 60 period ended EBM’s victory challenge.
Instead, 992 AM teams came through to the front of the overall class and it was QMMF by HRT which took a great win by 20 seconds from the No.888 Seblajoux Racing Porsche of Louis Perrot, Stephane Perrin and Anthony Vince. The Rabdan by Fulgenzi car had taken the flag in second, but time penalties dropped Christopher Zochling, Saif Alameri and Salem Alketbi back to third.
GTX, GT4 and TCE-TCX
Jack Mitchell dominated GTX during the early going in the Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT2, mixing it in the lower order of the GT3 class runners and ending the opening hour well over a minute and a half clear. Mike Simpson took over at the first round of stops, but soon had to pit with smoke entering the car’s cockpit. Continued issues ultimately ended the Ginetta’s involvement.
As a result, the Vortex 2.0 was able to take a clear lead in GTX with Julien Boillot at the wheel and the French team looked set for a trouble-free run to the finish. With 48 minutes remaining, though, the Vortex pulled off the track. Although not taking the flag, the squad won from the GT 3 Poland Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 of Adrian and Andrzej Lewandowski by several laps.
Cerny Motorsport team owner Henry Cerny took the start of the race in GT4 from class pole, comfortably leading in the BMW M4 before some frustrating niggles emerged after Sternkopf took over at the first stop. The car crawled to a halt, before getting going again on a couple of occasions, and intermittent gremlins continued to blight the BMW throughout.
Even so, the squad fought hard and battled to a four lap winning margin over the Circuit Toys Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Will Powell, Klaas Kooiker and Arthur Simondet. SRS Team Sorg Rennsport led for a short period earlier on with its Porsche 718 Cayman RS Clubsport, but any hopes disappeared in hour five after a spin into the barriers at Turn Four for Stefan Beyer.
Prior to the lap one Code 60, Christian Ladurner had grabbed the TCE-TCX lead in the asBest Racing SEAT Leon Cup Racer from the team’s pole-qualifying Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) driven by Dylan Pragji. The Porsche soon moved back into the lead though, with Chazel Technologie Course’s Alpine A110 Cup piloted by Xavier Follenfant close behind.
Ladurner was handed a 60 second penalty for overtaking during the initial Code 60, but all three cars continued to battle strongly. The Alpine led into the second half of the race and strengthened its grip to clearly win from the asBest Porsche of Pragji, Marco Grilli, Usmaan Mughal and Shiraz Khan.
The title deciding third and final round of the 2025/2026 Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy, the Michelin 24H DUBAI, will take place at Dubai Autodrome just a few days from now on 16/17/18 January.
Results are HERE
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