Victory after 24 hours Congratulations to the Manthey team. The crew did a flawless job
At the 49th edition of the endurance classic, works drivers Kévin Estre from France, Michael Christensen from Denmark and the Italian Matteo Cairoli crossed the finish line in first place at the wheel of the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R. This triumph rounds off the 25th anniversary celebrations of the team from the Eifel. Manthey expanded its accomplishment as the most successful team with the seventh win at the 24-hour race. It was also the 13th victory for a Porsche racing car. The Huber Motorsport customer squad achieved an emphatic win in the Pro-Am class with a 500+PS 911. Bad weather saw the race red-flagged for over 14 hours on Saturday evening. Consequently, the total driving time was only around nine and a half hours.
I’m also particularly pleased about Huber Motorsport’s Pro-Am class win.
“Congratulations to the Manthey team. The crew did a flawless job, the drivers gave a terrific show at the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 R,” said a delighted Fritz Enzinger, vice president of Porsche Motorsport.
“I’m also particularly pleased about Huber Motorsport’s Pro-Am class win. Our customer teams can be very proud of their achievements. Unfortunately, the strong performance was not always rewarded accordingly, as numerous vehicles had to retire after becoming entangled in other competitors’ accidents.”
The 24-hour race took off on Saturday afternoon in difficult track conditions. Works driver Kévin Estre gave an inspired performance in the Manthey-run Porsche 911 GT3 R on the partly flooded track. Within four laps, the Frenchman had charged through the field from eleventh to the front.
The identical vehicles of Rutronik Racing, Huber Motorsport, KCMG, Frikadelli Racing and Falken Motorsports made up many positions until the beginning of the 14-hour break at 9:30 p.m. Thick fog was the reason for the interruption. Prior to this, Frikadelli Racing’s No. 30 entry was hampered by bad luck. First, a power steering defect had to be repaired; a little later a damaged differential — the result of a puncture — threw the car out of contention. For the final sprint over three and a half hours, the customer teams lined up the other 911 GT3 R on the grid in promising positions on Sunday morning.
At the restart shortly before midday on Sunday, it was again Kévin Estre who treated around 10,000 spectators in the grandstands to some gripping racing. At the wheel of the so-called “Grello” Porsche 911 GT3 R, the 32-year-old came from sixth place to the front of the field and handed the car off to Michael Christensen in first place. The Dane turned heads with consistently fast laps and maintained the lead in the No. 911 car. Estre successfully fended off all attacks in the last hour of racing to take the flag by a margin of 8.817 seconds.