DUBAI (15 January, 2021) – GPX Racing currently leads the 2021 Hankook 24H DUBAI after a frenetic four hours of running at the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook season opener.

The GPX Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R (#36, Axcil Jefferies / Frederic Fatien / Mathieu Jaminet / Julien Andlauer / Alain Ferté), which qualified 4th yesterday, was running comfortably within the top five when the first of three Code 60 caution periods was flown barely 15 minutes into the race. With the frontrunners splitting strategy across both this and the subsequent Code 60 period, GPX Racing has judged its pit work to perfection and has now pulled one lap clear of the pack.

This marks a significant upturn in fortune for the Dubai Autodrome-based GPX Racing, which managed only three laps at last year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI before an enormous accident into turn one forced the Porsche’s early retirement.

The Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#92, Jürgen Häring / Wolfgang Triller / Vincent Kolb / Sven Müller / Klaus Bachler) currently lies 2nd. The Bavarian team secured yesterday’s FXPrimus pole position for the Hankook 24H DUBAI with the fastest ever GT pole lap recorded at the event, and has thus far led 20 of the 103 laps completed around the 5.39km Dubai Autodrome.

Behind Herberth Motorsport, the HRT Bilstein Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (#4, Hubert Haupt / Maro Engel / Patrick Assenheimer / Ryan Ratcliffe / Khaled Al Qubaisi) currently rounds out the overall top three, and boasts record-setting three-time winners Hubert Haupt and Khaled Al Qubaisi on its driver line-up. The GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo (#63, Rolf Ineichen / Adrian Amstutz / Mirko Bortolotti / Rik Breukers), which started on the front row for the fourth time in five years at the Hankook 24H DUBAI, is currently 4th after opting for a different fuel strategy to the rest of the frontrunners.  

The DINAMIC MOTORSPORT Porsche 991 GT3 R (#7, Roberto Pampanini / Mauro Calamia / Stefano Monaco / Matteo Cairoli) is now 5th having survived a collision with the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#91, Ralf Bohn / Daniel Allemann / Robert Renauer / Alfred Renauer) shortly after the second hour. Sadly, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche, which had been leading in GT3-AM, has already lost two hours in the pits.

The WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo (#31, Dries Vanthoor / Kelvin van der Linde / Louis Machiels / Benjamin Goethe / Frank Bird), a former outright winner of the Hankook 24H DUBAI, holds 6th ahead of the CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster / Shane Lewis). The American team is also your current GT3-AM class leader.

The Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo (#99, Christopher Mies / Markus Winkelhock / Finlay Hutchison / Alex Aka / Philipp Sager) lies 8th after a quiet run ahead of Herberth Motorsport’s third contender (#93, Steffen Görig / Antares Au / Daniel Lloyd / John Loggie). Haupt Racing Team’s second entry meanwhile – the #5 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (Khaled Al Qubaisi / Valentin Pierburg / Florian Scholze / Nico Bastian / Patrick Assenheimer) – rounds out the overall top 10, despite running out of fuel on the exit of turn 10.

Further back, issues for the long-time class leading Gt 3 Poland Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo (#708, Grzegorz Moczulski / Andrzej Lewandowski / Rafal Mikrut / Pawel Kowalski / Bartosz Opiola) means champions Leipert Motorsport now leads the GTX class with its Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo (#710, Gregg Gorski / Gerhard Watzinger / Kurt Thiel / Oscar Lee / Fidel Leib). The ARC Bratislava Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo (#707, Miro Konopka / Mato Konopka / Justas Jonušis / Thomas Padovani / Zdeno Mikulasko) has also moved ahead of the troubled Gt3 Poland entry.

In a surprisingly tight battle for 991 honours, the DUWO Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#909, Andrey Mukovoz / Stanislav Sidoruk / Sergey Peregudov / Dylan Pereira) and the PROFILDOORS by Huber Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#924, Larry ten Voorde / Ilya Melnikov / Merabi Mekvabishvili / Gabriele Rindone / Matthias Hoffsümmer) are split by just 34 seconds after four hours. The NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#991, Harry Hilders / Gijs Bessem / Bob Herber / Roeland Voerman) rounds out the class’ top three.

The biggest news from the 991 class concerns the turn one incident that befell the HRT Performance Porsche 991-II Cup (#928, Leon Köhler / Erik Behrens / Fabio Citignola / Sebastian Freymuth / JM Littman). Fabio Citignola suffered brake failure on lap eight, but fortunately managed to walk away uninjured.

The ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 (#438, Samantha Tan / Chandler Hull / Jon Miller / Nick Wittmer) leads the way in GT4 after four hours. The Team Avia Sorg Rennsport BMW M4 GT4 (#452, José Pires / Paulo Macedo / Luis Calheiros / JJ Magalhães / Matt Brookes) and the PROsport Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#401, Nico Verdonck / Rodrigue Gillion / Stephane Lemeret / Patrik Matthiesen / Constantin Schöll), which last year won the Overall GT Teams’ championship in the 24H SERIES Continents and 24H SERIES Europe respectively, are currently 2nd and 3rd in-class.

Coverage of the 2021 Hankook 24H DUBAI will continue uninterrupted throughout the night, with the chequered flag set to be waved on Saturday 16 January at 15.00 hrs local time. Live streaming of the race in HD quality will be available on our official website and the 24H SERIES YouTube channel. Regular updates will be published on Twitter (@24HSeries), Facebook (24H Series) and Instagram (24H Series). Further information can be found HERE.