Inception Ferrari Dominates Opening Hour

Photo: Optimum Motorsport

Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff dominated the opening hour of the Gulf 12 Hours.

Schandorff started the race from pole position aboard the No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 and rapidly cleared away during the opening stint, opening a gap of over 30 seconds by the end of the first hour.

The No. 69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Aaron Telitz worked its way up from sixth to second in the opening hour.

Telitz captured second place when Winward Racing’s Rinat Salikhov tangled with the No. 27 Pellin Racing Ferrari of Lisa Clark at Turn 12, allowing the McLaren to make its way through.

Salikhov’s No. 81 Mercedes-AMG ended the hour in third position, ahead of CapitalRT by Motopark’s Mikhail Aleshin and the No. 77 Al Manar by Dragon Ferrari in the hands of Chris Froggatt.

The sister DFYNE by Dragon Ferrari was one of the first cars to encounter significant trouble during the race, with an early charge for Giacomo Altoe brought to a halt with a power steering issue.

The car eventually rejoined in last place, 14 laps off the race lead.

Info Africa Racing by Haas RT held sixth with its No. 2 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in the hands of Stuart White, followed by Grove Racing by GetSpeed’s Grove Racing and the No. 16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG driven by Sergey Stolyarov.

Stolyarov was involved in an incident with the No. 8 Garage 59 McLaren of Marco Pulcini that saw the Mercedes-AMG spun round at Turn 16, for which Pulcini was given a stop-and-go penalty.

Pulcini retained the GT3-Am lead in ninth overall, while the overall top ten was rounded out by the Pro-Am leading No. 79 Tsunami RT Porsche 911 GT R in the hands of Johannes Zelger.

Source: Sports Car 365