At the first real world race meeting to be held in Europe since the outbreak of Covid-19, Herberth Motorsport has secured a 1-2 finish at the fourth annual Hankook 24H PORTIMAO.
Tim Müller took the chequered flag after completing 731 laps of the 4.652km Autódromo Internacional do Algarve to secure victory for the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#92, Tim Müller / Taki Konstantinou / Jürgen Häring / Michael Joos / Marco Seefried).
The result marks the first overall win at the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO for Herberth Motorsport, which won in-class at last year’s event en-route to the A6-AM Teams’ title in the 24H SERIES Europe championship standings. On top of that, Herberth Motorsport also broke the event’s previous distance record – 722 laps – set at the inaugural running by Bohemia Energy by Scuderia Praha back in 2017.
The sister #91 entry produced a storming recovery drive to finish 2nd overall (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Robert Renauer / Alfred Renauer). The second Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R had jumped to the head of the field in the opening laps and was already three laps ahead at one-third distance, but the Bavarian team lost more than an hour in the pits to a gearbox change. On its race back through the field, the #91 Porsche set the fastest lap of the race, a 1m 44.692s, with Robert Renauer at the wheel.
After an impressive run, the highest placed 991 category runner – the Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 991-II Cup (#921, Moritz Kranz / Carlos Vieira / Tom Cloet / Jeroen Bleekemolen) – completed an all-Porsche podium in the Algarve by finishing 3rd overall. Though unable to challenge for 991-class victory owing to a myriad of mechanical problems, the Speed Lover Porsche 991-II Cup (#978, Dominique Bastien / Gavin Pickering / Olivier Dons / Eric Mouez) was still classified 2nd in-class and 9th overall after a determined run.
The Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 (#421, Axel Sartingen / Daniel Schwerfeld / Thorsten Jung / Daniel Bohr / Moritz Kranz) completed a successful weekend for the Belgian team by claiming victory in CREVENTIC’s new CAYMAN category. Its nearest rival – the Veloso Motorsport Porsche Cayman GT4 CS (#408, Pedro Marreiros / Paulo Pinheiro / José Costa / Jean-Roch Piat / Mariano Pires) – was eventually classified 2nd in-class after losing several hours in the pits with handling problems. Fittingly, circuit CEO Paulo Pinheiro crossed the line to collect 11th overall for the Portuguese team.
Regrettably, mechanical woes meant that neither GT4 entrant made it to the finishing line, though the PROsport Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#401, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Tom Heeren / Constantin Schöll)
and the Parkalgar Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT4 (#412, André Antunes / Alvaro Ramos / Fred Blok / Joaquim Penteado / José Monroy) did complete enough of the race to earn full points in the 24H SERIES Europe standings.
Having qualified on outright pole position for the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO, the HTP Winward Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#84, Bryce Ward / Russell Ward / Indy Dontje / Philip Ellis) retired after just three hours following a heavy impact against the turn 13 barriers. Bryce Ward fortunately emerged unscathed but the damage was too great to repair.