Ebimotors Porsche Leads 12H Mugello After Seven Hours

Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors led the Michelin 12H Mugello at the overnight intervention after a rain-affected opening seven hours of racing.

The No. 95 Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Fabrizio Broggi, Sergiu Nicolae and Sabino de Castro held a lead of two minutes and 29.010 seconds over the No. 8 CCC Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 at the flag.

Kessel started the race from pole position with David Fumanelli at the wheel, taking an early lead with the No. 73 Proton Huber Competition Porsche of Manuel Lauck in tow.

After Scuderia Praha’s No. 56 Ferrari also played a role early on initially, the arrival of rain and a divergence of strategies through various Code 60s first brought the Ebimotors Porsche into contention around the three-hour mark.

It subsequently took the lead with De Castro at the wheel, maintaining a strong advantage over the No. 8 Ferrari despite that car setting the fastest lap late on with Marco Frezza on slicks.

Heart of Racing by SPS maintained a spot in the top three with its No. 27 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Ian James, Gray Newell and Hannah Grisham, leading the GT3-Am class in the process.

Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport’s No. 69 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II crossed the line in fourth, with Ryan Dalziel, Kyle Tilley, Dwight Merriman and Jake Hill rounding out the top five aboard the No. 81 Era Motorsport Ferrari.

The American squad put in a strong showing on its European GT3 debut, with a charging drive from Hill on slicks late on taking the car from tenth to fifth overall.

They were also the last GT3 runners to be classified ahead of the 992-leading No. 921 Muelhner Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 Cup, with the No. 11 Hofor Racing Mercedes-AMG dropping to seventh late on.

In GT4, the No. 421 Venture Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Neville Jones, Christopher Jones, Matthew George and Matthew Higgins held a commanding class lead, finishing the first seven-hour segment two laps clear of the next car in the category.

The No. 410 CCS Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Nicolas and Jim Gebhardt ran second, while the sole other car in the class, the No. 426 Lotus PB Racing Emira GT4, sat 23 laps off the class lead in third.

The final, five-hour segment of the 12H Mugello kicks off Sunday at 9:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. EST) with live coverage on the Creventic Motorsports TV YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Michelin 12H Mugello (Part One)