12H Mugello: Strong Swiss performances

While the first round of the VLN 2021 at the Nürburgring fell victim to a winter onset during practice on Saturday and had to be cancelled, the best weather conditions prevailed in Tuscany.

Third victory for Allemann
The Porsche 911 GT3 R of Herberth Motorsport with the fast twin brothers and team owners Alfred and Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn and Daniel Allemann from Solothurn was already ahead after the first four hours on Friday afternoon.

Starting the second part of the 12-hour race from pole position at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the Porsche dropped back to fourth place after the first pit stops. However, the Bavarian team benefited from a perfectly executed strategy and crossed the finish line with a three-lap lead after 335 laps on the 5.245-kilometer GP circuit at Mugello.

In 2015 and 2020, Herberth already took overall victory at the Hankook 12H Mugello with this line-up.

Podium for Dinamic trio
For a long time it looked like a double victory for Swiss GT3 drivers. In the last half hour, the Czech Matúš Výboh ousted the Porsche driven by Ivan Jacoma from Ticino from second place with a daring maneuver. For the Italo-Swiss Roberto Pampanini, Mauro Calamia from the Zurich Oberland and the director of Porsche Centri Ticino, however, third place overall is also a success.

Good premiere of Haegeli by T2 Racing
In a tough duel, Schlieren-based German pro Pierre Kaffer in the Audi R8 LMS wrestled the Haegeli by T2 Racing-Porsche driven by Manuel Lauck. Pieder Decurtins from Graubünden and his two German team partners Lauck and Basseng nevertheless managed a great debut for the newly formed Swiss team in the 24H Series with fifth place.

Podium again for Karen Gaillard
Karen Gaillard also took her place on the podium, as she did in Dubai. With the exception of the factory-fielded, winning new KTM X-Bow, all competitors in the GTX class had more or less major problems.

Thus, despite handling problems on both cars, Team Vortex V8 completed the places of honor, with the 18-year-old from Fribourg sitting in the third-placed car.

Out for Stadler team, GT4 victory for Ticino Porsche
The Cup Porsche of Stadler Motorsport with the Swiss driver quartet Paul Kasper, Ramon Werner, Marc Arn and Jan Klingelnberg, which started in the 991 class, stopped prematurely with a steering defect.

The Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS MR from Centri Porsche Ticino with Christian de Kant, Thomas Herbst, Antonio Spavone, Valerio Presezzi and Alessandro Fogliani celebrated an undisputed victory in the GT4 class after the Canadian BMW M4 GT4 had experienced major problems.

Exceptionally no TCR podium
In the TCR class, for once there was no Swiss team on the podium, after TOPCAR sport (absent in Mugello) and Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing had last achieved a magnificent triple success at the Dubai 24 Hours.

As already reported in our preview on Friday, the Autorama Golf #1 suffered a total loss on Thursday. The second car with the starting number #1 was well manned with Emil Heyerdahl, Constantin Kletzer, Marcus Menden and the Swiss team newcomer Walter Reho. However, the quartet was not quite able to keep up with the high pace of the front runners over the full distance.

However, the team seemed to be on its way to fourth place after a difficult weekend until a suspension strut broke in the last quarter of an hour. Thus, for the first time, the champion team of 2019 and 2020 did not finish a 24H Series race on the podium, but "only" in fifth position in the TCR category, which as always is fiercely contested.

Victory went to the Cupra TCR of Red Camel-Jordans.nl ahead of an Audi RS3 LMS and another fast Cupra from the Netherlands.

The next endurance races of the 24H Series powered by Hankook will follow on April 23 and 24 in the form of the 12 Hours of Paul Ricard and on the 22nd and 23rd with the 12H Hockenheimring.

Overall ranking Results by classes

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