2023 Gulf 12 Hours Explained

Race details
Date	10 December 2023
Official name	Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours
Location
Course	Permanent circuit 5.281km (03.281miles)
Distance	Race 12 hours
Qualifying
Pole
Drivers	Maro Engel Mikaël Grenier Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing
Avg Time	1:51.272
Race
Fastest lap
Driver	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing
Time	1:51.291 (on lap 4)
Podium
First		Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing
Second		Team WRT
Third		Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas

The 2023 Gulf 12 Hours (officially titled 2023 Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours^[1]) was the 13th edition of the Gulf 12 Hours, and was held at Yas Marina Circuit on 8–10 December 2023. The race was contested with GT3-spec cars.^[2] It was the final round of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Entry list

	Entrant	Car	Driver 1	Driver 2	Driver 3	Driver 4
GT3 Pro (5 entries)
14	Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Maximilian Götz	Jules Gounon	Fabian Schiller	-
32	Team WRT^[3]	BMW M4 GT3	Philipp Eng	Sheldon van der Linde	Charles Weerts	-
46	Team WRT	BMW M4 GT3	Valentino Rossi	Dries Vanthoor	Nick Yelloly	-
77	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Lucas Auer	Frank Bird	Lorenzo Ferrari	-
99	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Maro Engel	Mikaël Grenier	Luca Stolz	-
GT3 Pro-Am (12 entries)
4	Grove Racing^[4]	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	Brenton Grove	Stephen Grove	Richie Stanaway	-
11	Kessel Racing^[5]	Ferrari 296 GT3	Scott Andrews	David Fumanelli	Anton Dias Perera	Giorgio Roda
12	Centri Porsche Ticino^[6]	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	Stefano Costantini	Alex Fontana	Yannick Mettler	Hash Patel
25	AF Corse^[7]	Ferrari 296 GT3	Alessandro Cozzi	Marco Pulcini	Alessio Rovera	Giorgio Sernagiotto
26	OJ Lifestyle Racing by Racing One^[8]	Ferrari 296 GT3	Ramez Azzam	Omar Jackson	Zaamin Jaffer	Axcil Jefferies
27	Optimum Motorsport	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	Rob Bell	Ollie Millroy	Mark Radcliffe	-
33	Herberth Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	Antares Au	Matteo Cairoli	Tim Heinemann	-
59	Garage 59^[9]	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	Shaun Balfe	Benjamin Goethe	Oliver Goethe	Mark Sansom
74	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 296 GT3	Michael Broniszewski	Davide Rigon	Niccolò Schirò	-
75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Dominik Baumann	Philip Ellis	Kenny Habul	Martin Konrad
88	Garage 59^[10]	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Louis Prette	Alexander West	-
93	Sky – Tempesta Racing	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	Eddie Cheever III	Chris Froggatt	Jonathan Hui	Kevin Tse
GT3 Am (11 entries)
2	HAAS RT^[11]	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	Grégory Guilvert	Xavier Knauf	Miika Panu	Grégory Servais
3	2 Seas Motorsport^[12]	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Isa Al Khalifa	Ian Loggie	Al Faisal Al Zubair	-
7	Herberth Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	Daniel Allemann	Ralf Bohn	Alfred Renauer	-
20	AF Corse^[13]	Ferrari 296 GT3	Christian Colombo	Stéphane Lemeret	David Tjiptobiantoro	Lilou Wadoux
21	Car Collection Motorsport^[14]	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	Dustin Blattner	Constantin Dressler	Joel Sturm	-
51	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	Kriton Lendoudis	Nicola Marinangeli	Christoph Ulrich	Alex Fox
61	AF Corse	Ferrari 296 GT3	Conrad Grunewald	Laurent de Meeus	Miguel Ramos	Jean Claude Saada
73	MP Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Corinna Gostner	David Gostner	Manuela Gostner	Thomas Gostner
76	7TSIX^[15]	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	Tom Jackson	Wayne Marrs	Ameerh Naran	Matt Topham
79	Tsunami RT	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	Stefano Borghi	Marco Cassará	Davide Scannicchio	Johannes Zelger
86	Baron Motorsport	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	Daniele di Amato	Ernst Kirchmayr	Philippe Prette	Axel Sartingen
Source: ^[16]

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

Fastest times for each car are denoted in bold.
Pole positions in each class are denoted in bold.

	Class		Team	Car			Driver 1	Driver 2	Driver 3	Driver 4
1	P	99	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:51.272		1:51.075	1:51.364	1:51.378
2	P	14	Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:51.504		1:51.733	1:51.106	1:51.675
3	PA	33	Herberth Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1:51.731		1:50.592	1:51.187	1:53.414
4	P	46	Team WRT	BMW M4 GT3	1:51.756		1:52.259	1:51.614	1:51.396
5	P	77	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:51.762		1:52.082	1:51.806	1:51.400
6	PA	88	Garage 59	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	1:51.911		1:51.162	1:53.212	1:51.361
7	PA	27	Optimum Motorsport	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	1:52.021		1:51.769	1:52.885	1:51.409
8	P	32	Team WRT	BMW M4 GT3	1:52.025		1:52.347	1:52.030	1:51.699
9	Am	21	Car Collection Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1:52.173		1:52.284	1:53.036	1:51.199
10	PA	59	Garage 59	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	1:52.255		1:51.426	1:50.549	1:52.768	1:54.279
11	PA	11	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 296 GT3	1:52.442		1:50.705	1:51.981	1:51.324	1:55.760
12	Am	7	Herberth Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1:52.615		1:51.254	1:52.226	1:54.367
13	PA	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:52.637		1:53.115	1:53.919	1:51.726	1:51.789
14	PA	93	Sky – Tempesta Racing	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	1:52.657		1:52.843	1:52.725	1:53.521	1:51.540
15	PA	26	OJ Lifestyle Racing by Racing One	Ferrari 296 GT3	1:53.040		1:51.728	1:55.357	1:53.706	1:51.370
16	PA	4	Grove Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1:53.187		1:51.550	1:52.221	1:55.792
17	Am	3	2 Seas Motorsport	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:53.208		1:54.406	1:52.991	1:52.227
18	PA	25	AF Corse	Ferrari 296 GT3	1:53.271		1:54.460	1:51.477	1:56.413	1:50.734
19	Am	2	HAAS RT	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1:53.570		1:52.848	1:52.698	1:52.641	1:56.093
20	Am	61	AF Corse	Ferrari 296 GT3	1:53.796		1:51.693	1:53.118	1:54.778	1:55.597
21	Am	20	AF Corse	Ferrari 296 GT3	1:53.853		1:52.463	1:53.602	1:51.878	1:57.471
22	Am	51	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1:55.160		1:51.822	1:53.842	1:55.998	1:58.979
23	Am	79	Tsunami RT	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1:55.529		1:54.521	1:55.018	1:57.059	1:55.519
24	PA	12	Centri Porsche Ticino	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1:57.150					1:57.150
25	Am	76	7TSIX	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:57.512			1:55.165	1:59.544	1:57.829
26	Am	73	MP Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:57.750		1:55.305	1:56.017	2:01.835	1:57.844
WD	PA	74	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 296 GT3
WD	Am	86	Baron Motorsport	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020
Source:^[17]

Race

Race classification

Class winners denoted in bold.

	Class		Team	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time/Gap/Retired
1	P	99	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Maro Engel Mikaël Grenier Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	348	12:01:18.056
2	P	46	Team WRT	Valentino Rossi Dries Vanthoor Nick Yelloly	BMW M4 GT3	348	+12.811
3	P	14	Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas	Maximilian Götz Jules Gounon Fabian Schiller	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	347	+1 Lap
4	P	77	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Lucas Auer Frank Bird Lorenzo Ferrari	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	346	+2 Laps
5	Am	21	Car Collection Motorsport	Dustin Blattner Constantin Dressler Joel Sturm	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	346	+2 Laps
6	PA	27	Optimum Motorsport	Rob Bell Ollie Millroy Mark Radcliffe	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	345	+3 Laps
7	PA	11	Kessel Racing	Scott Andrews David Fumanelli Anton Dias Perera Giorgio Roda	Ferrari 296 GT3	344	+4 Laps
8	PA	33	Herberth Motorsport	Antares Au Matteo Cairoli Tim Heinemann	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	343	+5 Laps
9	Am	3	2 Seas Motorsport	Isa Al Khalifa Ian Loggie Al Faisal Al Zubair	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	343	+5 Laps
10	Am	7	Herberth Motorsport	Daniel Allemann Ralf Bohn Alfred Renauer	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	343	+5 Laps
11	PA	25	AF Corse	Alessandro Cozzi Marco Pulcini Alessio Rovera Giorgio Sernagiotto	Ferrari 296 GT3	343	+5 Laps
12	PA	88	Garage 59	Marvin Kirchhöfer Louis Prette Alexander West	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	342	+6 Laps
13	PA	93	Sky – Tempesta Racing	Eddie Cheever III Chris Froggatt Jonathan Hui Kevin Tse	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	342	+6 Laps
14	P	32	Team WRT	Philipp Eng Sheldon van der Linde Charles Weerts	BMW M4 GT3	342	+6 Laps
15	Am	20	AF Corse	Christian Colombo Stéphane Lemeret David Tjiptobiantoro Lilou Wadoux	Ferrari 296 GT3	340	+8 Laps
16	PA	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Dominik Baumann Philip Ellis Kenny Habul Martin Konrad	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	338	+10 Laps
17	Am	2	HAAS RT	Grégory Guilvert Xavier Knauf Miika Panu Grégory Servais	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	330	+18 Laps
18	Am	73	MP Racing	Corinna Gostner David Gostner Manuela Gostner Thomas Gostner	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	308	+40 Laps
19	Am	61	AF Corse	Conrad Grunewald Laurent de Meeus Miguel Ramos Jean Claude Saada	Ferrari 296 GT3	304	+44 Laps
20	PA	26	OJ Lifestyle Racing by Racing One	Ramez Azzam Omar Jackson Zaamin Jaffer Axcil Jefferies	Ferrari 296 GT3	291	+57 Laps
21	Am	51	AF Corse	Kriton Lendoudis Nicola Marinangeli Christoph Ulrich Alex Fox	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	244	+104 Laps
22	Am	79	Tsunami RT	Stefano Borghi Marco Cassará Davide Scannicchio Johannes Zelger	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	199	+149 Laps
23	PA	4	Grove Racing	Brenton Grove Stephen Grove Richie Stanaway	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	34	+314 Laps
24	PA	59	Garage 59	Shaun Balfe Benjamin Goethe Oliver Goethe Mark Sansom	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	24	+324 Laps
DNS	PA	12	Centri Porsche Ticino	Stefano Costantini Alex Fontana Yannick Mettler Hash Patel	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)		Qualifying crash
DNS	Am	76	7TSIX	Tom Jackson Wayne Marrs Ameerh Naran Matt Topham	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo		Qualifying crash
Source:^[18]

Notes and References

1. News: Lenovo Becomes Title Partner of Gulf 12 Hours. 6 December 2023. gulf12hours.com. 6 December 2023.
2. News: All-GT3 Gulf 12 Hours in 2023, additional race announced. www.gulf12hours.com. 13 December 2022. 13 December 2022.
3. Web site: Rossi Confirmed For Gulf 12 Hours. Goodwin. Graham. 8 November 2023. Dailysportscar. 8 November 2023.
4. News: Groves to blood Stanaway at Gulf 12 Hours. Herrero. Daniel. 27 November 2023. Speedcafe. 27 November 2023.
5. Web site: Kessel Reveal Gulf 12 Hours Line-ups. Goodwin. Graham. 4 December 2023. Dailysportscar. 4 December 2023.
6. News: Centri Porsche Ticino ready for Pro-Am challenge. www.gulf12hours.com. 15 November 2023. 15 November 2023.
7. Web site: Four-Car Gulf 12 Hours Assault For AF Corse. Goodwin. Graham. 16 November 2023. Dailysportscar. 16 November 2023.
8. News: Local crew gears up for Gulf 12 Hours. www.gulf12hours.com. 1 December 2023. 1 December 2023.
9. News: Goethe Brothers to Share Garage 59 McLaren at Gulf 12H. Euwema. Davey. 1 December 2023. Sportscar365. John Dagys Media. 1 December 2023.
10. News: Les brèves du jeudi 30 novembre. fr. 30 November 2023. Endurance-Info. 1 December 2023.
11. News: HAAS Racing team unveils its driver line up for the coming GULF 12H. 17 November 2023. Endurance-Info. 18 November 2023.
12. Web site: Sieben Mercedes-AMG GT3 bei Gulf 12 Hours. GT-Place.com. de. Plümer. Jonas. 29 November 2023. 29 November 2023.
13. Web site: Four-Car Gulf 12 Hours Assault For AF Corse. Goodwin. Graham. 16 November 2023. Dailysportscar. 16 November 2023.
14. News: Car Collection with two Porsche at the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi. 23 November 2023. Endurance-Info. 23 November 2023.
15. News: 7TSIX ready for Gulf 12 Hours Debut. www.gulf12hours.com. 15 November 2023. 15 November 2023.
16. Web site: ENTRY LIST GULF 12 HOURS. www.gulf12hours.com.
17. News: 9 December 2023 . Gulf 12 Hours – Qualifying Driver 1 – combined . https://web.archive.org/web/20231211021700/https://resultscdn.getraceresults.com/2023/YAS%20Marina%20Circuit/12th%20Gulf%2012%20Hours%20Race%202023/Gulf%2012%20Hours%20-%20Qualifying%20Driver%201%20-%20combined.pdf . 11 December 2023 . 11 December 2023.
18. News: 10 December 2023 . Gulf 12 Hours – Race . https://web.archive.org/web/20231211014426/https://resultscdn.getraceresults.com/2023/YAS%20Marina%20Circuit/12th%20Gulf%2012%20Hours%20Race%202023/Gulf%2012%20Hours%20-%20Race.pdf . 11 December 2023 . 11 December 2023.