Sainteloc Audi Dominates First Race Segment

Sainteloc Racing led the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours into the break, carrying a comfortable lead through a commanding performance during the opening eight hours of the contest.

Zhou Bihuang, Dennis Marschall and Gilles Magnus have been in command of the race since gaining the lead in the opening hour, taking the checkered flag at the end of the first eight-hour segment with a lead of over a minute compared to the No. 69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

The No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II started the race from seventh on the grid, but a strong opening stint brought Magnus up into second ahead of a battle with Garage 59’s Louis Prette.

Prette, piloting the No. 8 McLaren, held off the Belgian for half an hour before he was held up in traffic and lost out around the outside of Turn 1.

From there, Sainteloc effectively controlled the first part of the race, aided by a significant setback for rival squad 2 Seas Motorsport.

The two-time Gulf 12H winners were the only team to take the first of their six mandatory 100-second pitstops at the end of the opening lap.

That put Jules Gounon, Stephen Grove and Brenton Grove a stop ahead on the cycle, only for the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to lose its advantage when it was hit by the No. 44 ARC Bratislava Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in the fourth hour.

The impact caused damage to the car’s left-front suspension, with the resulting repairs leaving 2 Seas 22 laps off the lead.

Optimum’s No. 69 McLaren finished in second after eight hours, with a charging drive from Frederik Schandorff bringing the car up into second overall, with Aaron Telitz then maintaining that position to take the checkered flag.

The British squad engaged in a strategy of pitting to install Bronze-rated Todd Coleman during each of the race’s three safety car periods.

The first intervention came when the No. 17 Enrico Fulgenzi Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup of Alessandro Giannone stopped in track, followed shortly thereafter by a second safety car after Toro Verde GT driver Graeme Mundy hit the barriers at Turn 11.

After that, it took more than an hour for the safety car to make another appearance, being called upon once more after Adam Konopka crashed the No. 44 ARC Bratislava Lamborghini on the exit of Turn 4.

Proton Huber Competition took the checkered flag in third with its No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Sven Mueller, Sergey Stolyarov and Sergei Borisov, ahead of the No. 7 Herberth Motorsport Porsche piloted by Dustin Blattner, Ralf Bohn and Alfred Renauer.

The German squad also led the GT3 Am-category, having recovered from a puncture in the opening hour that had dropped it down the order after the team initiallly started from overall pole position.

The pair of Garage 59 McLarens took fifth, with the No. 59 car of Mark Sansom, Miguel Ramos, James Jakes and Benjamin Goethe leading GT3 Pro-Am in the process.

After a two-hour break, the remaining four-hour segment of the Gulf 12H will commence at 7 p.m. GST (10 a.m. EDT), with live coverage on YouTube.