Herberth Beats Kessel to Pole Position

Herberth Motorsport will start the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours from pole position after topping qualifying despite a strong effort from Kessel Racing’s Davide Rigon.

Dustin Blattner, Ralf Bohn and Alfred Renauer posted a combined average time of 1:52.896 aboard the No. 7 Porsche 911 GT3 R, outpacing the No. 11 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 by 0.131 seconds.

The Italian squad, with a lineup comprising of Rigon, Murat Cuhadaroglu, Giorgio Roda and David Fumanelli, was one of only two entrants to have more than one driver dip below the 1:52 mark during the individual segments.

After Fumanelli set a 1:51.271, Rigon went on to post the fastest outright time across all sessions by reeling off a 1:51.163, but it proved insufficient to wrestle pole away from Herberth.

Proton Huber Competition’s No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R qualified third in the hands of Sven Mueller, Sergey Stolyarov and Sergei Borisov, despite Stolyarov triggering a red flag in the final segment when he spun into the barriers at Turn 12.

A late flyer from Jules Gounon resulted in fourth overall for the No. 4 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that the Andorran shares with Stephen and Brenton Grove.

Kessel’s second Ferrari, meanwhile, completed the overall top five in the hands of Andrew Gilbert, Fran Rueda and Tanart Sathienthirakul.

The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Cozzi, Eliseo Donno, Marco Pulcini and Giorgio Sernagiotto will start sixth, ahead of the No. 25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 55 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari and a pair of McLaren 720S GT3 Evos from Garage 59 and Optimum Motorsport, respectively.

In addition to the red flag caused by Stolyarov, a further interruption came during the second session when the No. 6 Racing One Ferrari stopped on track with suspension damage at Turn 5.

The 2024 edition of the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours starts with the opening eight-hour segment, Sunday at 9 a.m. GST (midnight EDT).