KUWAIT (2 December, 2022) – GT Continents Trophy leader CP Racing currently leads Team GP-Elite after the opening four hours of the 2022 Hankook 12H KUWAIT. 

The CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster / Shane Lewis), which is looking to emulate its first outright win in the 24H SERIES earlier this year in Portimão this weekend in Kuwait, currently holds a two-minute lead over the Team GP-Elite Porsche 911 GT3 R (#32, Lucas Groeneveld / Jesse van Kuijk / Daan van Kuijk). Ironically, both teams, which have led a combined 80 of the 110 completed laps thus far around the 5.608 km Kuwait Motor Town, were affected by slow punctures during the opening stages of the race.

The Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#909, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers) leads the 992 class, and, amazingly, is currently 3rd overall after a metronomic run. Briefly, the Dutch team was one of the five overall leaders of the event across the opening four hours.

The Team Kuwait by MRS GT-Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (#47, Mohammad Al-Kazemi / Zaid Ashkanani / Ahmad Al Ghanem) lies 4th at its home event after the opening four hours. Having led the opening stages from pole position, keeping both the Team GP-Elite Porsche and the ARC Bratislava Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#44, Miro Konopka / Matej Konopka / Zdeno Mikulasko) at bay in the process, the Kuwait outfit ended up losing time with a slow puncture during the first hour and, later, a spin at turn 20. The Porsche though has recovered and remains well in podium contention.  

Early frontrunner ARC Bratislava is running 14th after four hours, the Lamborghini having suffered several right rear punctures through the high-speed turn one, the first of which occurred just 10 minutes into the event. 

razoon-more than racing (#714, Dominik Olbert / Daniel Drexel / Haytham Qarajouli) currently rounds out the overall top five. The KTM X-BOW GTX qualified an impressive 4th overall during yesterday’s session, but was penalized three grid spots owing to a BoP issue. The Austrian team’s race was further compounded in the very early going with a spin at turn two while battling for position, but the KTM has since meticulously worked its way back through the field.

Behind 992 class leader Red Camel-Jordans.nl, the Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#955, Fabrizio Broggi / Sergiu Nicolae / Sabino de Castro) is currently 6th overall and 2nd in-class ahead of GT Continents Trophy contender QMMF by HRT Thuraya Qatar (#929, Abdulla Ali Al Khelaifi / Abdullah Al-Abbasi / Ibrahim Al-Mannai / Kim André Hauschild), despite the latter losing a portion of the Porsche’s ‘nose’ on-track and suffering a right-rear puncture. HRT Performance also lies just seven points adrift of CP Racing in the GT Continents Trophy standings. 

Fittingly, HRT Performance’s second and third entries are running nose-to-tail on-track in 7th and 8th overall, the standalone HRT Porsche (#928, Gijs Bessem / Harry Hilders) lapping just 52s ahead of the second QMMF by HRT Thuraya Qatar Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#930, Ghanim Al Ali / Ibrahim Al Abdulghani / Hamad Saeed Al-Asam / Anders Fjordbach). 

Behind GTX leader razoon-more than racing meanwhile, and despite overheating issues that forced the car to start from the pitlane, Vortex V8 (#701, Philippe Bonnel / Lionel Amrouche / Nicolas Nobs) is currently running 2nd in-class. Despite the late arrival of its Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo and a right rear puncture during the second hour, GT Continents Trophy contender Leipert Motorsport (#710, Kerong Li / Jean-Francois Brunot / Gregg Gorski) currently rounds out the GTX podium.

The Century Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#429, David Holloway / Adam Hatfield / Bradley Ellis / Piers Johnson) has now moved ahead in the inter-team battle for GT4 honours after a bizarre problem befell the pole-sitting RHC Jorgensen-Strom by Century BMW M4 GT4 (#450, Daren Jorgensen / Brett Strom / Nathan Freke): the latter was forced to pit shortly after its latest fuel stop with a loose filler cap, which caused fuel to escape from the filler neck on-track. The Aston Martin though has so far managed to hold off the Herberth Motorsport-supported Lionspeed Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS MR (#491, José Garcia / Daniel Miller / Andreas Bakkerud / Patrick Kolb) – for which three-time European Rallycross Champion Andreas Bakkerud is competing – for 2nd in GT4. 

In TCE, AC Motorsport (#188, Stéphane Perrin / Mathieu Detry / James Kaye) had been leading with its brand-new Audi RS 3 LMS only for a loose rear hub and a severe front-end vibration to strike in quick succession shortly after the third hour. Division polesitter, and early leader, BBR (#159, Pasarit Promsombat / Tanart Sathienthirakul / Kantadhee Kusiri / Kantasak Kusiri / Anusorn Asiralertsiri) has thus resumed the lead with its newly-liveried CUPRA Leon Competición TCR.

Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport’s dual-entered BMWs is now running 2nd and 3rd overall in TCE, the 365hp #332 M2 CS Racing having pulled three laps clear of the sister, 450hp #331 BMW. Michael Mayer, Martin Kroll, Michael Bonk, Rainer Partl and Hermann Bock are sharing driving duties across both entries. 

The Wolf-Power Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR (#116, Jasmin Preisig / Ivars Vallers / Mohammad Al Sabah) meanwhile has endured a tough start to the Hankook 12H KUWAIT. Having already been forced to repair a loose front splitter during the opening hour of the race, the German team lost even more time when the Audi collected the tyre debris from QMMF by HRT Thuraya Qatar’s puncture, contact from which punctured the radiator and damaged the front bodywork. To compound matters further, close to 45 minutes were also spent repairing the Audi’s differential.