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24H Series

WTM Ferrari Wins 24H Barcelona

WTM Ferrari enjoys commanding victory run after recovering from early puncture…

Photo: 24H Series

WTM Racing won the Hankook 24H Barcelona, finishing ahead of Phoenix Racing after recovering from an early-race setback.

The Rinaldi Racing-operated No. 22 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, piloted by Georg Weiss, Leonard Weiss, Nico Varrone, Daniel Keilwitz and Indy Dontje, ran at the head of the field throughout the majority of the second half of the race.

This came after it fell away from the front during the second hour when a spin and subsequent puncture dropped it down the order, but had fought its way to the top three by the halfway mark.

At that point, the No. 1 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Samantha Tan, Nick Wittmer, Bryson Morris and Steven Aghakhani had enjoyed a strong run leading the race.

The Canadian squad, which won the Mugello round earlier in the session, captured the race lead in the fourth hour when the pole-sitting No. 91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R ran into trouble.

However, the BMW would encounter trouble overnight, grinding to a halt from the lead and retiring with a head gasket failure.

From there, WTM Racing’s Ferrari would emerge as the main challenger for the race lead and would carry that lead into the morning with Phoenix Racing’s No. 18 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Michael Doppelmayr, Elia Erhart, Swen Herberger and Pierre Kaffer in second position.

The order at the head of the pack would remain practically unchanged for the final few hours, with WTM going on to finish some two minutes clear of Phoenix.

CP Racing’s No. 85 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster and Shane Lewis followed its Portimao victory up by completing the podium.

A returning Poulsen Motorsport crew finished fourth, with the No. 23 Huber Motorsport Porsche of Joerg Dreisow, Alexander Schwarzer, Manuel Lauck, Wolfgang Triller and Marc Basseng completing the top five.

Dinamic Motorsport finished sixth, with the No. 71 JUTA Racing Audi of Eimantas Navikauskas, Aurimas Jablonskis, Paul August, Lars Viljoen and Jonas Gelzinis the final GT3 runner to finish ahead of the 992 class.

Despite being frontrunners in the early stages, pole-sitters Herberth Motorsport endured a troubled run ending with the No. 91 Porsche stopping on track while in podium position and failing to reach the finish.

In GT4, the No. 403 AtlasBX Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 Steven Cho, Roelof Bruins, Jong Kyum Kim, Taekeun Yang and HA Tae Young enjoyed a clean run to class victory.

Its lone rival, the No. 444 Senkyr Motorsport BMW M4 GT4, retired from the race with engine troubles after just over eight hours.

RESULTS: 24H Barcelona

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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