Optimum Beats Sainteloc to Gulf 12H Victory

Todd Coleman, Aaron Telitz and Frederik Schandorff secured victory for Optimum Motorsport in the 14th running of the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours.

The No. 69 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo finished 4.127 seconds ahead of the No. 25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Zhou Bihuang, Gilles Magnus and Dennis Marschall.

The two squads started the final, four-hour segment of the race first and second and with the drive time for both of their Bronzes completed, the battle for the lead boiled down to Telitz and Schandorff versus Magnus and Marschall.

Telitz gained the upper hand early on when he passed Marschall shortly after the start of the final segment and subsequently opened up a gap of over four seconds.

However, a safety car triggered by an oil spill for Benjamin Goethe’s No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren wiped out the American driver’s lead.

Magnus, freshly installed into the No. 25 Audi, subsequently made quick work of Telitz and overtook the No. 69 McLaren at the restart.

Optimum subsequently lost further ground with a five-second penalty for track limits, but Schandorff gradually chipped away at the lead gap after he took over from Telitz.

The Dane ran roughly a second behind Marschall when he pitted and used the undercut to gain the race lead during the final rounds of stops.

Schandorff subsequently extended the gap en route to victory, delivering Optimum’s first win at the event and McLaren’s second after a previous triumph  in 2021.

The No. 16 Proton Huber Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sven Mueller, Sergey Stolyarov and Sergei Borisov completed the overall podium.

The GT3 Pro-Am victory went to the No. 8 Garage 59 McLaren driven by Alexander West, Louis Prette, Philippe Prette and Adam Smalley, who finished fourth overall.

The British squad looked to be en route to a 1-2 result, only for an engine issue to force the sister No. 59 car driven by Goethe, Mark Sansom, Miguel Ramos and James Jakes into retirement.

The No. 7 Herberth Motorsport Porsche of Ralf Bohn, Dustin Blattner and Alfred Renauer picked up the GT3 Am victory in fifth overall, while a late unscheduled stop dropped the No. 26 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Jim Pla, Paul Evrard, Benjamin Ricci and Michael Blanchemain to sixth.

Ferrari runners made up the remainder of the overall top ten, with the No. 11 Kessel Racing entry  finishing the race in front of the No. 51 AF Corse,  No. 55 Rinaldi Racing and No. 88 Dragon Racing machines, respectively.

Meanwhile, Ghanim Salah Al Madheed, Abdullah Al Khelaifi, Ibrahim Abdulghani and Julian Hanse picked up the GT Cup class victory aboard the No. 91 QMMF by HRT Performance Porsche 992 GT3 Cup.