WTM Ferrari Wins 24H Barcelona

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.