Close battle between Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari in first hours 12H Epilog Brno

Brno – A close battle between the pole-winning Scuderia Praha Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (#11, Jiri Pisarik/Jaromir Jirik/Matteo Malucelli/Peter Kox) and the RAM Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (#30, Tom Onslow-Cole/Paul White/Thomas Jäger) marked the first hours of racing in the Hankook 12H Epilog Brno. Right after the start, Thomas Jäger overtook Peter Kox to take the lead, but in the third hour, after the driver changes, Matteo Malucelli restored the order and put the Ferrari back in first place.

One quarter into the race, the HB Racing Team Herberth Porsche 997 GT3-R (#7, Daniel Allemann/Herbert Handlos/Ralf Bohn/Alfred Renauer) is third, followed by the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s of SPS automotive performance (#33, Valentin Pierburg/Lance David Arnold/Alex Müller) and HP Racing (#2, Nico Bastian/Markus Weege/Hubert Haupt/Carsten Tilke).

After a spectacular competition put on by the participants in the Czech Drift Series and a nice motorcycle stunt show in the morning hours, 50 cars lined up on the grid to take the start of the race, the finale of the 2015 24H Series powered by Hankook. Peter Kox drove the pole-winning Ferrari and led the field into the first corner, but Thomas Jäger had a better exit with his Mercedes-Benz and took over first place. The order remained like that for the first two hours, before the Ferrari came out on top again shortly after the second range of pit stops for the front runners in the third hour of the race.

SPX class

At the three-hour mark, the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan (#22, Isaac Tutumlu Lopez/Vadim Gitlin/Adrian Watt) remains on top in SPX. Austrian team MSG Motorsport is leading the 997 class with its Porsche 991 Cup Car (#51, Felix Wimmer/Luca Rettenbacher/Klaus Bachler). The two MARC Cars Australia entries are first and second in SP2, with the number 91 car (#91, Keith Kassulke/Peter Leemhuis/Jake Camilleri) ahead of its sister car (#92, Brett Niall/Malcolm Niall/James Kaye). The Ginetta G50 of British team Speedworks Motorsport (#169, Tony Hughes/George Richardson/Piers Johnsson) is leading the SP3 class.

A3T class

In A3T, French team Altran has its two Peugeot 208 GTIs in first (#208, Guillaume Roman/François Riaux/Gonzalo de Andres) and second (#205, Mathieu Sentis/Stéphane Ventaja/Sarah Bovy) place. The BMW M3 GTR E46 of Czech team Duck Racing (#82, Lumír Firla/Daniel Skalicky/Dan Suchy) is leading the A5 class while Swiss team Presenza.eu Racing Team Switzerland is on top in class A2 with its Renault Clio (#112, Luigi Stanco/Stefan Tanner/Klaus Kresnik).

SP3 and A5 class

Having claimed pole position in both the SP3 and A5 class, Dutch team Cor Euser Racing has had a troublesome race so far: after ten laps already, the A5-pole winning BMW (#83, Hal Prewitt/Jacky van der Ende/Ricardo van der Ende) headed into the pits with a broken ABS while the Lotus Evora GT4 (#160, Hal Prewitt/Cor Euser/Danny van Dongen), the fastest SP3 car in qualifying, has come to a halt on the track numerous times during the third hour with technical issues. For Lithuanian team, VSI sporto klubas ‘Rimo’, there was bad luck after one lap already due to a blown engine on its BMW 330D (#145, Rimantas Blazulionis/Saulius Vitkauskas/Martynas Samuitis), but after three hours of repair, the car was back on track.

24H Series