•    Origine Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) wins maiden Michelin 12H MALAYSIA
•    Chinese team heads-home Porsche one-two with Absolute Racing taking second  
•    Red Camel-Jordans.nl victorious in 992 class, Modena Motorsports win 992-AM
•    Cerny Motorsport BMW M4 wins GT4, asBest and Vortex win TCE-TCX and GTX
•    First round of Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy at Sepang a big success 

 DRAMATISCHE SCHLUSSPHASE BEI DEN MICHELIN 12H MALAYSIA MIT SIEG FÜR ORIGINE MOTORSPORT NACH STRAFE FÜR HERBERTH MOTORSPORT

Sepang, Malaysia (6 December 2025):
China’s Origine Motorsport claimed an unexpected win at the first ever Michelin 12H MALAYSIA, under the floodlights at PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit on Saturday evening, after a late four lap penalty was applied to fellow Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) team Herberth Motorsport.

Robert Renauer originally took the chequered flag in the No.91 Herberth Porsche, just a few minutes after the timing screens had lit-up with the penalty for the German squad – linked to the ‘minimum driving time’ of the team’s AM graded competitors Ralf Bohn and Constantin Dressler.

Instead, Origine’s Bo Yuan, Ye Hongli, Lu Wei and Liu Hangcheng were promoted to the overall race victory to head a Porsche one-two, just over half a minute ahead of the Absolute Racing line-up of Antares Au, Loek Hartog and Patric Niederhauser. Origine also wins the GT3-AM class in round one of the 2025/2026 Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy.

“It’s very lucky to be honest as we finished second [on the road]”, said Bo Yuan, “But still, I’m happy for the team, they put in a lot of effort for this race. We trained hard, everyone worked really hard, so thanks to all of the guys.”

Lu Wei added: “My team-mates did a really good job, I have to say. Bob [Yuan] drove four stints, I drove only two, so big thanks to Bob. We didn’t tell Leo [Ye Hongli] we had won the race today, he didn’t know until he hit the finish line!”

Third place overall in the revised result was a dream outcome for the Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport team, the No.69 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Vasily Vladykin, Alexander Bukhantsov, Damian Ciosek and James Winslow having fought through superbly from a pitlane start – the car having missed qualifying due to a gearbox change.

Herberth was classified fourth overall in GT3 after the four lap penalty was applied, meaning the quartet of twin brothers Alfred and Robert Renauer, Bohn and Dressler still took the victory in the GT3 PRO-AM class.

In the 992 division a terrific battle at the front was promised between the Red Camel-Jordans.nl and Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) entries. However, a driveshaft related problem for the latter four hours into the contest enabled Red Camel’s Luc, Rik and Ivo Breukers, plus Adrian Flack, to have a clearer – albeit not entirely problem free – run to class victory. 

Modena Motorsports came through strongly to win 992 AM, with Benny Simonsen, Francis Tjia, John Shen and Christian Chia, and in GT4 success was taken by the Cerny Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (G82) of Bryce Fullwood, Spencer Propper, Alec Udell and Damien John Hamilton.

TCE-TCX was won by asBest Racing’s Pia Ohlsson, Lutz Obermann, Junichi Umemoto and Sebastian Schemmann in the No.102 Cupra TCR DSG, while the GTX winning Vortex 2.0 of Lionel Amrouche, Philippe Bonnel and Victor Moutinho ended the race in the pits after major gearbox problems.

Climax Racing’s Tanart Sathienthirakul launched well from pole position in the No.99 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, although not quite as well as fellow front-row starter Hartog in the No.10 Porsche. Looking outside at Turn One, Hartog positioned his car perfectly for the inside at Turn Two to get the lead.

Behind the Climax Mercedes the Origine Porsche held third, with Yuan, and Dominic Ang had sliced into fourth in the Viper Niza Racing Mercedes-AMG – from sixth. Robert Renauer made fabulous progress in the Herberth Porsche from the back of the GT3 grid, the team having missed qualifying due to electrical issues, and he was up into the podium placings after roughly half an hour. 

There was a Code 60 required at the end of hour one, due to the GTX class Vortex 2.0 stopping on track, and when racing resumed Hartog led nicely from Sathienthirakul with neither having yet pitted. The latter stopped first, Hartog followed a lap later and stayed in the car for a double stint.

Herberth moved to the front for the first time in hour two, Bohn now at the wheel, but after the squad’s next pit visit Hartog retook the lead for Absolute as the Porsches really began to make their mark and trade first place through the pit cycles.

Vladykin appeared inside the top three around one third distance in the Continental Racing Audi R8, the team quietly, but very impressively, going about its business from the pitlane start. As the different tyre, fuel and driver strategies played out into the second half of the encounter, preservation of the Michelin rubber was one of the most vital considerations on the low grip asphalt. 

Porsches remained in the box seat for the podium, with the Continental Audi the most likely spoiler, and when light started to rapidly fade around 19.00 local time the floodlights brought an even more spectacular theatre for the closing stages. 

Origine was the first of the lead contenders to make its final stop with 80 minutes to go, Hongli getting behind the wheel for the run to the flag, followed by Niederhauser for Absolute around 10 minutes later. Herberth’s Porsche was the last of the three to make its final pit visit, inside the last hour, and Robert Renauer emerged 46 seconds clear, seemingly on his way to the win.

With only 15 minutes remaining on the clock though, the unexpected happened when the four lap penalty for Herberth came through from race control. Immense disappointment for Herberth, but elation for Origine – its Porsche making history with the win, in only the car’s second ever race.

As expected, the battle for honours in the 992 class was very tight from the beginning with Rik Breukers leading from pole in the Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) but with Paul Meijer in the No.921 Mühlner Motorsport car staying well within reach. 

In hour two, Mühlner’s Valters Zviedris closed down Flack in the Red Camel car and passed him into Turn One on lap 43 – with the latter then having to serve a time penalty linked to speeding in the refueling area at the previous pit-stop. Mühlner held a good advantage after three hours but, before the end of hour four, disaster struck when the No.921 was wheeled into the pits.

The team ultimately lost around 20 laps in repairing the driveshaft issue, its challenge for the win over, so thereafter the Red Camel entry had things pretty much its own way. The team did, though, have a series of issues with the front splitter on the No.909 which needed replacing three times.

Modena Motorsports did take the overall lead in 992 midway through the race in the pit cycles, and a strong second half of the race ensured the Hong Kong squad claimed a great 992-AM win in second overall in 992, a couple of laps adrift of Red Camel-Jordans.nl. Third in 992, second in 992-AM, was 610 Racing’s Cao QiKuan, Lu Zhiwei, Yang Haojie and Li Lin, with Mühlner ending fourth overall.

Cerny Motorsport’s crew had an all-nighter to get its BMW M4 ready for the race, as a result of unfortunate contact with barriers during Friday’s night practice – an excursion caused by the peddle box moving. 

The car was in good order for raceday, though, and ran impressively until a front-left wheel bearing failure almost four hours into the encounter knocked out the wheel speed sensor, in turn dropping the car into limp mode. Double-quick repairs by the team got the car back into the race to win GT4. 

In TCE-TCX, asBest Racing almost had a trouble-free run throughout the 12 hours but a change of front brakes was needed in the final half hour. Nonetheless, the Cupra TCR DSG ended the race only 12 laps adrift of Cerny’s GT4 class BMW to win TCE-TCX.

Vortex V8 encountered problems from quite early on with the GTX class Vortex 2.0, stopping on track just 25 minutes into the action and, after some time spent in the pits, the car then ground to a halt just before the end of the first hour. Dramas continued, linked to the clutch and gearbox, and the team worked tirelessly – but the car sadly remained in the pits when the chequered flag fell.

Race two of the 2025/2026 Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy, the Michelin 6H ABU DHABI, will be held at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on 9/10 January.