The third Gulf 12-Hours endurance classic was the icing on the cake for Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon Racing which added victory at the Yas Marina Circuit to its clean sweep of the 2013 endurance racing calendar.
Winning by just one lap after completing 308 laps of the 5.55km Yas Marina GP circuit, the team’s drivers Jeroen Bleekemolen, Bernd Schneider and Khaled Al Qubaisi were the class act of Abu Dhabi setting pole position and leading for much of the race.
Bleekemolen claimed pole so started the race alongside the number 11 Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 GT3 being piloted by Daniel Zampieri, Michael Broniszewski and Cesar Ramos on the front row.
A safety car intervention during the first six-hour stage allowed reigning 12-Hour champs AF Corse to take advantage of a pitstop before their rivals which gave the Ferrari team an edge over the Black Falcon Mercedes and take the lead. From there, AF Corse’s drivers Steve Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Marco Cioci continued in the lead and took the chequered flag at the end of the first six hours from Black Falcon by 58 seconds.
The unique nature of the 12-Hours comprises a race broken into two six-hour runs and at the start of the second part held under twilight conditions on a cooling track, Black Falcon got the jump over AF Corse on the restart and were never headed for the remaining six hours of racing, taking a clear 1’40″ victory from AF Corse who finished in second place.
Finishing just off the podium despite a race-long tussle with the number 11 Kessel Racing Ferrari, the M-Sport Bentley team could not have hoped for a better debut of their new race team and the new Continental GT3.
The big Bentley was consistently mixing it with the top 5 contenders thanks to a stunning performance by team drivers Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Andy Meyrick.
During the closing stages of the enduro, the Continental GT and the Ferrari swapped places and remained within just a few tenths of a second until the final pitstop when the Ferrari edged clear and eventually finished one lap up on the Bentley which slowed down in the final two laps not to exacerbate some issue that emerged on the front axle.