Ben Barnicoat squeezes past Louis Prette. Barnicoat is moving up and has gained two places. Barnicoat has raced in Europe and in IMSA with the Lexus factory team. Matus Vyboh has damage to the right front corner of the Ferrari as we go Full Course Yellow for the third time and the Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 is stopped on the road with Eduardo Coseteng at the wheel of it. So, he will have to do a Control, Alt, delete to recycle that car. We wonder how this spot of bother for Century Motorsport has cropped up. Christopher Haase leads the motor race over Mattia Drudi. An Audi 1-2 under Full Course Yellow and before the yellow they were 2.8 seconds apart. In third is the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3 with Philip Ellis at the controls. Alessio Rovera next up for AF Corse and then comes Al Faisal Al Zubair and James Calado in the sister AF Corse, Francorchamps Motors Ferrari.
Repairs going on, on David Fairbrother's car in the garage. David Fairbrother is out of the car. We await a snatch vehicle to recover the stricken BMW M4 GT3 and we have had over half an hour of Full Course Yellow and about 11 and a half minutes of safety car, with 84 laps completed, 276 miles, as Matus Vyboh is in the pit lane having the #91 Ferrari repaired, but it hit hard, and it looks like there is coolant pouring out of that car. Actually, the Toro Verde Porsche is the car with the coolant that poured out of the radiator. We hope driver David Fairbrother is going to be OK.
The BMW M4 GT3 is being towed back to the garages. Ferrari #91 being rotated on the dollies and Team Baron will make repair after clattering the barriers under the hotel. Yas Marina is starting to dry out a bit. It is not fully dry, though. Christopher Haase is your overall leader. Philip Ellis leads Pro Am, Louis Prette in Am, and Alex Fontana in the Porsche Cup class as we have been running under Full Course Yellow for 40 some odd minutes by now. Team boss Nathan Freke and his team are going to just have to use this race (the rest of it), as a test session.
The sun is back out as the cars are now behind the safety car. The cloud has broken up again and we have sunshine in the desert. A spinner under safety car as Kevin Tse has spun the #93 Sky Tempesta Garage 59 McLaren. What a shame as James Townsend and company at Duel Racing, are out of the event. Pit work underway for the #42 BMW M4 GT3 for Century Motorsport. They are way down in 25th place, six laps down. Game over for the #16 Porsche as we put the marker of doom through that one. Christopher Haase, Mattia Drudi, Philip Ellis, Alessio Rovera, Al Faisal Al Zubair, James Calado, Gilles Magnus, Marvin Kirchohfoer, Ben Barnicoat, and Louis Prette, the top ten.
Lewis Williamson had to pit for an emergency splash and dash in one of the Mercedes AMG GT3's. He will have to catch the tail end of the crocodile. At Century Motorsport, Dan Harper (now a BMW factory driver) says there was a clutch failure on the BMW M4 GT3. The car has stopped again and so the trouble is not fully and entirely fixed. This is Dan Harper's first time racing in Abu Dhabi. Harper was a Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion and had been a BMW Junior driver.
Green flag. We are back to racing and Christopher Haase leads Mattia Drudi by 2.4 seconds. Ellis under threat from Alessio Rovera. Rovera lags back and Philip Ellis is hanging tough in a Pro-Am ranked Mercedes. He is weaving past the MDK Motorsports Ferrari with Kevin Magnussen at the controls. Ellis must be careful and here comes Alessio Rovera as well. Wow! This is a close scrap through turn nine. Philip Ellis has to find his way past Kevin Magnussen who is doing his own race. Magnussen has run in Formula 1 and in sports cars.
Alessio Rovera has dropped back and now, the top four cars pit, and Al Faisal Al Zubair is the erstwhile leader in the #77 Al Manar Racing by Getspeed Mercedes AMG GT3. Kenny Habul will take over the #75 Mercedes and now, a loose wheel for Ben Barnicoat in the #7 Inception Racing McLaren and he has been driving in his stint for an hour or so. Kenny Habul is ready to go out for his stint as the #93 Sky Tempesta McLaren 720S GT3, Kevin Tse hands over to Eddie Cheever III. Martin Kodric is now back at the wheel of the 2 Seas Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 as well. Lewis Williamson takes his imposed pit stop.
Kenny Habul loops it on his out lap at the end of the back straightaway towards turn six on cold tires. Thankfully he does not hit anything, completely locked up, on the paint. Ian Loggie takes over the #8 RAM Racing Mercedes and the #52 Ferrari has another driver change. The Inception McLaren has mercifully arrived in the pit lane. Gilles Magnus, a specialist in TCR touring cars, is also becoming a great GT3 racer. As for the Inception Racing McLaren, they do have a broken wheel. Gilles Magnus is chasing Al Faisal Al Zubair.
Maybe the top wishbone on the McLaren is broken. Eight and a half hours to go in this motor race. Al Faisal Al Zubair runs 6.4 seconds ahead of Gilles Magnus. Alfred Renauer in the Herberth Motorsports Porsche is matching Al Zubair's pace, and the #51 2 Seas Motorsports Mercedes has caught these two up. It may be that is the Lewis Williamson car. There are two 2 Seas Motorsports Mercedes' in the race. Dominik Baumann has finished his stint handing the car to Martin Berry. Berry has run in Europe and in the Asia Pacific region. Mercedes AMG probably cannot believe that two of their top cars are out of the motor race.
Car #55 in Am now has Jamie Stanley at the wheel, a Silver rated driver. Stanley in one of the AF Corse Ferrari's. Gilles Magnus is reeling in James Cottingham hand over fist as well. Gilles Magnus is pressing his way through traffic that is very fast. Conrad Grunewald has now gotten back into the #61 AF Corse Ferrari. Gilles Magnus in second place, going for the lead. We could see another Sainteloc Audi get into the overall lead and both of their cars will have had a taste of it. Magnus passes James Cottingham and now he has to get past Alfred Renauer as well. Inception Racing and Ben Barnicoat still in the pit lane. Alfred Renauer is holding up Gilles Magnus on a part of the road that is still wet.
Martin Kodric is also coming in a hurry, a former winner of this race. Audi #66 sixth, Ferrari #50 in seventh and Ferrari #51 in fourth with James Calado at the wheel of it. Gilles Magnus is slipstreaming the Porsche and cannot get the job done. Alfred Renauer is closing up on Al Faisal Al Zubair as well. Al Zubair bails for the pit lane and Gilles Magnus will now take the lead of the race here in the Gulf 12 Hours. Magnus has run for two hours, I think. Refueling and a driver change at Al Manara Racing, and I think it will be Fabian Schiller next up in that car. Team manager for Sky Tempesta Racing McLaren, please report to the stewards' office.
So, Gilles Magnus is now in the lead ahead of Marvin Kirchhofer, and James Calado. Patrick Kolb a backmarker in the #69 Herberth Motorsports Porsche. More pit action for the #11 Ferrari and Emanuele Tabacchi has finished his stint and shall hand the car over to one of his co-drivers. Tabacchi is a three-time Ferrari Challenge champion but also races a Porsche in the Italian GT Championship. Martin Berry has been pinged by the stewards for speeding in the lane in the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG GT3. Niccolo Schiro is now at the controls of the Kessel Racing Ferrari.
The GT Cup leading #92 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is in the pit lane. Alex Fontana finishes his stint. Meanwhile, Marvin Kirchhofer is challengine Alfred Renauer. Renauer is not in the same fight. He is 16 laps down. He now has to deal with the sister Herberth Motorsport Porsche #69 of Patrick Kolb. 103 laps, 338 miles. Game over for the #7 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3. Ben Barnicoat, Ollie Milroy, and Brendon Iribe are out of the race. Ollie Milroy never got a chance to drive in this event today. What a shame. Patrick Kolb is now back into this race and we are nearly done with the fourth hour of the race.
A forlorn sight as the #7 McLaren is out of the race. The team are still examining the lefthand corner. Marvin Kirchhofer has just made a pit stop from second place on the road. Gilles Magnus' lead, has ballooned to nine seconds over new second place runner James Calado. It is an upright failure for Inception Racing. Such a shame, and an unusual situation where it cannot be fixed. Kevin Magnussen pits the MDK Motorsports Ferrari which is also being run by AF Corse. Kevin Magnussen sharing with his dad Jan Magnussen and with Mark Kvamme. Gilles Magnus continues to lead the motor race and has done a great job. He is maintaining the pace as well.
Again, Magnus is mostly known as a TCR racer, but he is really showing what he can do at the wheel of a GT3 car. We are getting close to the end of the fourth hour of this race which means we are 1/3rd of the way through. We have seen more twists and turns than we expected at first and where on earth did the rain come from? Yikes! We have seen a lot of mechanical attrition as well. Abu Dhabi does not have massively high curbing. I am stunned to see the favored Mercedes' out of the race. Absolutely unreal.
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