Sainteloc Audi Leads Opening Hour

Sainteloc Racing’s Gilles Magnus led the opening hour of the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours, which saw Herberth Motorsport and Lionspeed GP encounter early issues.

The Belgian, piloting the No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, captured the lead when he wrestled his way past Garage 59’s Louis Prette after 37 minutes.

Prette, in turn, had led aboard the No. 8 McLaren 720s GT3 Evo after the two cars ahead of him pitted early in the race for varying reasons.

While polesitter Dustin Blattner brought in the No. 7 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R with a puncture, Jules Gounon pitted the No. 4 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at the end of the first lap to take the first of six mandatory timed 100-second stops required in the opening segment of the race.

Gounon had stormed up from fourth to second in the opening corners and challenged Blattner for the lead before pitting.

Blattner, meanwhile, made his unscheduled stop not much later, while fellow Porsche squad Lionspeed GP also encountered trouble with a broken splitter within the opening 30 minutes.

With Blattner and Gounon out of the way, Prette assumed the lead but soon came under pressure from Magnus.

The Monegasque driver struggled with traffic as he battled with the Belgian, eventually getting held up by Dragon Racing driver John Schauerman.

That allowed Magnus to pass the No. 8 McLaren around the outside of Turn 1 to take the lead.

Prette then soon also lost second place to the No. 16 Proton Huber Competition of Sven Mueller.

Magnus led at the end of the opening hour from Mueller, Prette and the second Garage 59 McLaren driven by Benjamin Goethe.

Paul Evrard completed the top five in the second Sainteloc Audi, ahead of Kessel Racing’s Fran Rueda, who had fought his way past the No. 51 AAF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Giorgio Sernagiotto after a lengthy battle.