Al Manar Ferrari Out Front After Four Hours

Chris Froggatt led the Gulf 12 Hours for Al Manar by Dragon with half of the event’s opening segment completed, with running interrupted by a pair of lengthy caution periods.

Froggatt, piloting the No. 77 Ferrari 296 GT3, held a lead of some 24 seconds over the No. 81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff in third position overall.

The Optimum Motorsport-run No. 70 Ferrari dominated the opening hour of the race with Schandorff at the wheel, but lost ground when co-driver Brendan Iribe took over.

Iribe’s opening stint in the car coincided with the race’s first safety car, which was triggered in the opening moments of the second hour when Sergey Stolyarov’s No. 16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG hit the barriers at Turn 5.

After the restart, Iribe then found himself in the crosshairs of Jules Gounon, who had taken over the No. 4 Grove Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG and charged up to the lead with a pass at Turn 6.

Iribe was then also overtaken by the No. 77 Al Manar Ferrari in the hands of Al Faisal Al Zubair into Turn 1, which left the Omani in prime position to inherit the lead when Gounon pitted to hand over to Stephen Grove.

Al Zubair led into the race’s second safety car period, this time triggered by a crash for the No. 58 MP Racing Mercedes-AMG at Turn 15.

Once the race restarted, it saw two incidents involving contending cars, with Iribe first colliding with the No. 13 CapitalRT by Motopark Mercedes-AMG and Grove later being tagged into a spin by Tigani Motorsport’s Sergio Pires, both at Turn 6.

That second incident briefly saw the No. 69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo take the lead for the first time on the pit cycle, although it dropped back outside the top five after Bronze-rated Todd Coleman took over.

With four hours remaining in the opening segment, Froggatt led from Piana and Schandorff, with Mikhail Aleshin fourth in the No. 13 CapitalRT Mercedes-AMG and Axcil Jefferies fifth aboard the No. 2 Into Africa Racing by HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

HAAS RT’s second car led the Pro-Am class in the hands of Steven Palette, while Garage 59’s No. 8 McLaren is in command of GT3-Am after the crash for the No. 58 MP Racing Mercedes-AMG.