Ebimotors Wins 12H Mugello After Kessel Penalty

Photo: Racingpixels

Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors took victory in the Michelin 12H Mugello after a late-race drive time penalty for CCC Kessel Racing.

The No. 95 Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Fabrizio Broggi, Sergiu Nicolae and Sabino de Castro, was classified a lap clear of the No. 27 Heart of Racing by SPS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Ian James, Hannah Grisham and Gray Newell.

Era Motorsport completed the overall podium with its No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 piloted by Dwight Merriman, Jake Hill, Kyle Tilley and Ryan Dalziel, marking the first podium finish for the American squad’s new GT3 effort.

The No. 8 Kessel Ferrari of David Fumanelli, Alessandro Cutrera, Marco Frezza and L.M.D.V. was classified fourth, having been given a four-lap penalty for a drive time infraction.

The No, 95 Ebimotors Porsche had led the race into the overnight intervention and held a lead of a lap after two and a half hours, but Cutrera used a drying track and slick tires to briefly bring the No. 8 Ferrari back into the lead before pitting to hand over to Fumanelli.

The Gold-rated Italian, also on fresh slicks, rejoined 30 seconds behind Broggi but rapidly closed in, setting a new GT3 lap record on the Mugello Circuit with a time of 1:46.060.

With an hour remaining, Fumanelli passed Broggi for the lead and although the No. 8 Ferrari would need to stop for fuel late on, Kessel looked on course for victory.

Not much later, however, race control handed Kessel a four-lap penalty for not fulfilling the minimum driving time by its Am/Am Spirit graded drivers.

‘Am Spirit’ is Creventic’s new designation for drivers that were previously classified as ‘Am+,” with the change implemented for this weekend’s event as the Am+ classification was used as recently as January’s Michelin 6H Abu Dhabi.

As a result of the penalty, Ebimotors secured Porsche’s second consecutive 12H Mugello victory, following on from last year’s 1-2 finish from the Stuttgart marque led by Team GP Elite.

RedAnt Racing finished fifth overall upon its GT3 debut, with its No. 93 Mercedes-AMG driven by Ayrton Redant, Yannick Redant, Kobe de Breucker and Kenneth Heyer.

In the GT4 class, Venture maintained the advantage it had built up during Saturday’s opening seven-hour segment, as the No. 421 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Neville Jones, Christopher Jones, Matthew George and Matthew Higgins finished two laps clear of the nearest challenger in class.

Nikolas Gebhart and Jim Gebhardt took second aboard the No. 410 CCS Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS, with that car in turn 42 laps ahead of Stefano d’Aste, Massimo Abbati, Alberto Naska and Massimiliano Schiavone in the No. 426 Lotus Emira GT4.

RESULTS: Michelin 12H Mugello