News | March 13, 2024

Hankook 12H MUGELLO. Did you know…? (Part 2)

Fun facts and trivia about the Hankook 12H MUGELLO. Part 2 
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On 22-23-24 March, the 10th edition of the Hankook 12H MUGELLO is set to be held. But which team holds the event’s lap record? Which brand has the most overall wins at the event? And how many Italian drivers have won their home endurance race?

 

Words – James Gent

Images – Nico Mombaerts / Petr Frýba / Eric Teeken

As of 2023, Porsche and Ferrari currently have the most overall race wins at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO with three apiece. The former was victorious in 2015, 2020 and 2021 (all with Herberth Motorsport), while the Prancing Horse won in 2014 (AF Corse), and 2017 and 2019 (both Scuderia Praha). 

 

BMW, Audi and even Renault meanwhile currently have one overall race win each, in 2016 (V8 Racing), 2022 (ST Racing), and 2023 (Haas RT) respectively. Interestingly, those wins for BMW and Renault constitute the only overall event podiums for both manufacturers at the event to-date.

Interestingly, the Hankook 12H MUGELLO is commonly the site for teams securing their first overall wins in the 24H SERIES. In fact, of the six teams to have taken overall victory at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO, five of them – AF Corse (2014), Herberth Motorsport (2015), V8 Racing (2016), ST Racing (2022) and Haas RT (2023) – did so for the first time. The sole exception is Scuderia Praha, which took its first overall 24H SERIES win Brno in 2014, five months before its win in Italy.

Fittingly, Ferrari currently boasts several event records on home turf:

 

o   Alongside its win tally, Ferrari also holds the race lap record at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO, Italian David Fumanelli having posted a 1m 47.806s aboard the Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 in 2022. This bested the previous record – a 1m 48.263s – posted by Fabio Leimer for Octane 126, also with a Ferrari 488 GT3.

 

o   The Prancing Horse also holds the distance record at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO. AF Corse’s 349 laps (1,830.5km) completed in 2014 has yet to be beaten.

The inaugural Hankook 12H MUGELLO in 2014 also holds the event record for the closest winning margin to-date, AF Corse having beat Stadler Motorsport to victory by just 5.417 seconds. So close was that race, it remained the closest winning margin of ANY 24H SERIES event for almost a full decade, and was only beaten when CP Racing won the 2023 Hankook 12H KUWAIT by just half a second. 

While Porsche and Ferrari currently share the record for the most overall wins at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO, neither, bizarrely, have racked up the most overall podium finishes. That particular accolade belongs to Mercedes-AMG, which has finished nine times in the overall top three – at each event compared with ‘just’ six for Porsche and four for Ferrari. In fact, the 2021 and 2023 races aside, at least one Mercedes-AMG GT3 has finished on the overall Hankook 12H MUGELLO podium every year. Unfortunately for Stuttgart, none of those podiums have included the overall top step… 

At Mugello in 2023, Stéphane Perrin became only the second driver in 24H SERIES history to win overall in both the GT and TCE divisions in the same year, the Frenchman’s GT win with Haas RT coming just two rounds after he secured overall TCE victory at the Hankook 24H DUBAI. This equaled Rik Breuker’s accomplishment in 2019, when he won the Hankook 24H DUBAI overall with Car Collection Motorsport in January, then took the TCE wins later that year at both Spa-Francorchamps and COTA with Red Camel-Jordans.nl.

Interestingly, the most recent Hankook 12H MUGELLO in 2023 also holds two event records:

 

o   Audi became the first manufacturer to take a 1-2 finish at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO (Haas RT’s Audi R8 LMS led home Saintéloc Junior Team’s own R8). 

o   The Saintéloc Junior Team became the first team to finish in the overall top three with just two drivers (Erwan Bastard and Paul Evrard). That meant just eight drivers celebrated on the overall podium. 

Alongside its win record, Herberth Motorsport has also secured the most overall podiums at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO (four), with the Bavarian team having also finished 3rd overall in 2019 behind Scuderia Praha and Barwell Motorsport. 

 

Ironically, Herberth would also finish just behind the Barwell Lamborghini later that year in Barcelona, this time with victory on the line.

 

One team with an unexpectedly strong record at the Hankook 12H MUGELLO meanwhile is Hofor-Racing. The 2017 Overall GT Teams’ ‘Europe’ champion has secured more overall podiums than any other team at the event, bar Herberth Motorsport – three in 2014, 2015 and 2016  – and has finished each of its other three entries (2017, 2019 and 2023) inside the overall top five, securing the A6-Am class win on two occasions.   

Amazingly, only one Italian driver – Matteo Mallucelli – has won the Hankook 12H MUGELLO outright (2017 and 2019). By contrast, four drivers from Germany, three from The Netherlands, two from the Czech Republic, two from Canada, two from Belgium, and even two from Belarus have taken overall victory!

 

Interestingly though, SIX different Italian drivers – Thomas, David, Manuela and Corinna Gostner, Marco Mapelli, and Roberto Pampanini – have finished 3rd overall at the event, the third most behind only Germany and Switzerland.

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