Maple leaf flies after two-parter
Canadian team ST Racing took Mugello 12 Hours honours with its BMW M4 GT3 driven by Nick Wittmer, Bryson Morris and Samantha Tan.
The BMW led at the end of Friday’s opening segment of five and a half hours, while two other cars were on the lead lap. Second place at this point was held by the Landgraf Mercedes driven by Martin Konrad, Bernd Schneider and Alexander Hrachowina, while Pierre Kaffer was third in the Phoenix Racing Audi he shared with Elia Erhart, Swen Herberger and Michael Doppelmayr.
Wittmer set off at the front again on Saturday, but had to endure an early battle with Konrad before the BMW established itself at the front. Finally the BMW was able to pull out two laps on the rest for victory.
Going into the final 40 minutes, it was Konrad in second place. But a Code 60 gave Phoenix the chance to bring its Audi into the pits for fuel and new tyres. A charging Kaffer then set off and grabbed the position from the Mercedes, which was suffering with gearbox issues, by 1.453s.
Among the retirements, the Sainteloc Racing Audi and Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche were sidelined by a collision at
Turn 1, while habitual series dominator Herberth Motorsport had all sorts of problems with its Porsche.
Rallycross and touring car superstar Johan Kristoffersson suffered a flailing tyre on Friday, but lost out on 992-class honours by just 4.2s to the Dutch Breukers family.