The #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Michael Broniszewski, Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina claimed the 2017 Gulf 12 Hours win after 12 hours of superb endurance racing. This result gave Kessel their third straight win in the series, and Rigon his fourth, the first being with AF Corse in 2014.
It was a Ferrari 1-2, as Rinat Salikhov, Marco Seefried and Norbert Siedler in the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3, finished less than a minute behind the triumphant Kessel stallion, giving Rinaldi their first Gulf 12 Hours podium. The top three was rounded off by the #17 Ultimate Ligier JS P3 LMP3 of Matthieu Lahaye, Jean-Baptiste Lahaye and François Hériau.
The ‘Ferrari show’ was well and truly rounded off by the #77 sister Kessel car of Claudio Schiavoni, Andrea Piccini and Sergio Pianezzola, who completed the GT class podium.
#17 Ultimate took the LMP3 win and finished on the lap ahead of the United Autosports duo, #22 raced by Johnny Mowlem, Bonamy Grimes and Tony Wells, followed by #24 of Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne, Michael Benham and prototype debut maker, Salih Yoluc.
GTX was dominated all week by the #46 Target Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo. Sarun Sereethoranakul, Karim Al Azhari and Jan Lammers took to the top step ahead of the MRS GT-Racing sister cars #14 and #15, by five and eight laps respectively.
The GTX overall classification, introduced by Gulf 12 Hours, was awarded to the #44 Generation AMR SuperRacing team of James Holder, Matthew George and Steve Tandy.
Davide Rigon – Kessel Racing “It was fantastic to win again. Thank you to Ferrari for their durability and Kessel Racing for letting us have an unproblematic race. We found good balance in the car when the sun went down and the temperature dropped, so we were really competitive. To lead the grid of 26 cars from this morning’s race was great. I had a nice battle with the Rinaldi Ferrari in part two and performing the overtake for the lead made me very happy. I really want to come back to make it win number five!”
Miguel Molina – Kessel Racing “It was my first time here in Abu Dhabi. I had a bit of pressure with Davide as my teammate! It was a great week for us and we work really well together and also with Michael who did a fantastic job. It was our day. It is great to get another win for Ferrari and its very special to win the overall Gulf 12 Hour race.”
