•    Fantastic teamwork, great pace and top strategy deliver victory for HAAS RT
•    Three different marques on overall podium with Audi, Porsche and Mercedes
•    Faultless performance from Van Berlo Motorsport by Bas Koeten Racing in 992 
•    Venture’s Mercedes-AMG GT4 and Vortex 2.0 take spoils in GT4 and GTX
•    Fifth place overall in GT3 lifts Scuderia Praha into two point series lead

 AUDI GEWINNT ERNEUT DIE MICHELIN 12H MISANO DANK TOLLER LEISTUNG VON HAAS RT

Misano, Italy (24 May 2025):
Jef Machiels, Matisse Lismont and Peter Guelinckx earned an impressive victory for the HAAS RT squad in today’s Michelin 12H MISANO, round three of the MICHELIN 24H SERIES European Series, with the No.21 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II taking the chequered flag 50 seconds clear. 

Thanks to a strong, consistent and incredibly competitive performance at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, HAAS RT was in the fight for the win right from the beginning and the success means Audi is undefeated in the 12H MISANO event after the marque was also victorious last year.

“I know what the team had to endure last year, with having to abandon the race at 10 hours, so this one feels sweet”, said Lismont, “My first time with HAAS as well, hopefully there’s some more in the future – we’ll see. I enjoyed it a lot, a really nice track and a really nice championship. The car had zero issues at all, a mega performance to be honest.”

Pole position qualifying Proton Huber Competition finished second, the No.73 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) also winning the PRO-AM class in the hands of Klaus Bachler, Manuel Lauck, Jorg Dreisow and Constantin Dressler. 

Red Ant Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO made it three different brands in the outright top three, with Ayrton and Yannick Redant, Kobe de Breucker and Kenneth Heyer. Fourth, and winning GT3 AM, was Juta Racing with its Audi R8 piloted by Tim Muller, Nicola Michelon and Arunas Geciauskas

Van Berlo Motorsport by Bas Koeten Racing impressed race-long in the 992 class to claim a richly deserved win – seventh overall – in the No.925 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992). The result marked the first ever win together for brothers Glenn and Kay van Berlo with their father Marcel. 

Second in 992, and winning the AM class comfortably, were RPM Racing’s Niclas Jonsson, Tracy Krohn and Philip Hamprecht who enjoyed a largely trouble free 12 hours in their No.907 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992). Such is RPM’s consistency, the team now leads the overall 992 standings. 

Venture were awarded the Spirit of the Race award, the No.421 Mercedes-AMG winning GT4 and battling non-stop in the hands of Matthew George, Neville and Christopher Jones to also take 13th position overall. In GTX, Vortex V8 fought a number of issues and a lengthy time in the pits but emerged to take the flag to win the class with Cyril Calmon, Philippe Bonnel and Lionel Amrouche.

Lauck started the race for Proton Huber Competition and launched perfectly from pole in the Porsche, although Lismont in the HAAS RT Audi R8 went with him and the pair circulated almost as one for the first 30 minutes. Lauck then began to edge away and built a lead of 4.5 seconds prior to a Code 60 at the end of hour one.

Yannick Redant, in the No.93 Mercedes-AMG, had slipped to third at the beginning behind Lismont, while E2P Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO moved up to fourth in the hands of Antonio Sainero and Josef Kral took fifth in the Scuderia Praha Ferrari 296 GT3.

Towards the end of hour one, Kral – up to fourth – produced two great passes through traffic to take second before a Code 60 was called after contact between the E2P Aston Martin and the 992 class Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) of SebLajoux Racing. This then triggered the opening round of pit-stops, with Scuderia Praha emerging in the lead with Matus Vyboh at the wheel of the No.56 Ferrari.

Machiels, now at the wheel of the HAAS RT Audi, wasted no time in making his move and on lap 48 a late pass on the brakes at the hairpin gave him the lead. At the next stops Machiels emerged ahead of de Breucker in the Red Ant Mercedes and Vyboh’s Ferrari, albeit with Juta leading on the road.

The second Code 60 of the race then came at the end of hour two, following a tangle between a couple of 992 class Porsches, and as the action approached one quarter distance Geciauskas led for Juta while Bachler, in sixth, was reeling off new lap records for Proton Huber. At the end of four hours HAAS RT led from Red Ant and both entries really began to solidify their challenges.

As the race reached the halfway point HAAS RT was on top with Machiels, from Bachler’s Porsche and Yannick Redant third in his Mercedes-AMG. At this point it seemed the outright GT3 podium would be determined from those three cars, with the next group featuring the Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport and Juta Racing Audi R8s, HOFOR Racing’s Mercedes and the Praha Ferrari. 

So it continued in terms of the top three as afternoon became evening, and when sunset arrived with less than an hour to go HAAS RT led the way with Lismont back at the wheel. Bachler held second for Proton Huber while de Breucker was third for Red Ant, and that’s how it finished under the Misano night skies. 

Behind Juta Racing’s GT3 AM winning Audi R8, Scuderia Praha’s Ferrari was fifth overall to take second in PRO-AM and the GT3 points lead with Kral, Miroslav and Matus Vyboh and Dennis Waszek. The outright top six was completed by HOFOR Racing’s Alexander and Chantal Prinz, Michael Kroll and Maximilian Partl who were also second in GT3 AM in the No.11 Mercedes-AMG.

Glenn van Berlo got the jump at the start for Van Berlo Motorsport by Bas Koeten Racing, passing 992 class pole qualifiers Red Camel-Jordans.nl at the beginning and initially pulling away from Rik Breukers. They traded places several laps in but van Berlo responded and began to pull clear again.

90 minutes elapsed van Berlo was still on top, although Martin Rump was up to second for Muhlner Motorsport. Fabian Danz, now in the Red Camel car, moved back to second as hour two neared its conclusion and then took the 992 lead as more stops were taken.

Into hour three, after the second Code 60 of the race, Kay van Berlo led 992 with Danz second and Rolando Saca third for Muhlner. Patrick Steen Rasmussen then took Holmgaard Motorsport up into third ahead of Saca before high drama for the Red Camel-Jordans.nl squad – contact resulting in a left-rear puncture and bodywork damage.

Shaking up the order as a result, Magnus Holmgaard led 992 with Marcel van Berlo now in the No.925 car in second and Valters Zviedris was third for Muhlner. Through the next stops the Van Berlo car moved back into the box seat and then, in hour five, there was more pain for Red Camel.

Additional damage was sustained by the No.909 car after Luc Breukers unfortunately tagged the barriers at the pit entry, resulting in the rear suspension being misaligned. His father, Ivo, rejoined the track following a lengthy 25-minute pit stop, but he soon returned for more repairs to be done.

Muhlner Motorsport also encountered major problems, resulting from contact earlier in the race, and spent a long time in the pits with a range of repairs required – including steering. Just before the halfway point the No.921 Muhlner Porsche returned to the track seventh in 992 and 19 laps down. Shortly after this the Red Camel car also rejoined the race, at the tail of the 992 field in ninth.

Glenn van Berlo led 992 with half the race remaining, from Jonas Holmgaard in second and Matthieu Detry in third for Ajith Kumar Racing by Red Ant. Frustratingly for the latter, mechanical woes hit the squad’s podium bid with a gearbox change required. Incredibly, Holmgaard were then hit with bad luck as well when the No.902 Porsche stopped on track with power issues.

As competitors fell by the wayside, all looked set for the Van Berlo family to take victory and success was duly secured some seven laps clear of RPM Racing. Third in 992, second in 992 AM, went the way of the SebLajoux Racing squad of Paul Meijer, Stephane Perrin, Jeremy Faligand and Seb Lajoux himself – yet another hard-fought performance after a myriad of issues.  

Venture’s Matthew George produced a perfect stint at the beginning in the No.421 Mercedes-AMG GT4 and he ran comfortably ahead of the GTX class Vortex 2.0 of Cyril Calmon. With single entries in both classes, the interest was the difference between the pace and strategy of each car as well as how high up the overall order they could finish.

As the race progressed, ebbed and flowed, Venture delivered a typically strong team effort and ultimately finished less than 90 seconds shy of the overall top 12. Vortex, meanwhile, summed up the ethos of Creventic’s championship by fighting right to the end to ensure the hobbled No.701 car could rejoin before the finish to actually take the chequered flag and the GTX win.

Michelin 24H SERIES European Series action now heads into a six week break with race four of the season, the penultimate round of the 2025 championship, taking place on Saturday, 5 July, at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France. 

For full championship tables following round three visit www.24hseries.com/standings and for more information generally see www.24hseries.com