SunEnergy1 Racing and Mikaël Grenier finished in sixth place at the Gulf 12 Hours
MECHANICAL ISSUES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE RACE COST THE TEAM SEVERAL LAPS BUT CLASSIFIED SECOND IN GT3 P CLASS
It looked promising for SunEnergy1 Racing by SPS Automotive Performance has they started on the front row in second place.
Kenny Habul took the first relay of the race which was hampered by a full course yellow in the first hour that lasted for about 25 minutes caused by no. 11 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The driver hitting the barrier just before the entrance of a corner and ended up skidding all the way to the outside tire wall causing severe damage and spreading a lot of debris along the way. At the first relay, Maro Engel took over the driving duties for the no. 75 car. Shortly after taking the relay, Engel experienced a handling issue with the Mercedes AMG GT3. After coming back to the pits for a second time in a space of a couple of laps, the team rolled the car back to the garage and were seen working on the rear right suspension replacing a suspected broken damper.
The time spent in the garage ended up being very costly evidently. Although it did not stop the three drivers to keep pushing during each of their stints for the remainder of the race.
As the car was back to its competitive spirit, the lap times showed the problem had been resolved. The lap times being very competitive with the fastest cars/drivers out there.
Showed in eight place, several laps down from the leader, they still managed to get laps back from cars ahead.
At the checkered flag, the win went to the Mercedes AMG GT3 no.1 of 2 Seas Motorsport(Ben Barnicoat, Martin Kodric, Isa Al Khalifa) for their second win in a row at the Gulf 12 Hours. Second place went to no. 88 Mercedes AMG GT3 of SPS Automotive Performance(Valentin Pierburg, Dominik Baumann, Christoph Lenz) and third the no. 46 of VR46 team(David Fumanelli, Luca Marini, Alessio Salucci).
Shown four laps down from the winning car and in sixth place is where SunEnergy1 Racing ended their race. If it was not for the suspension problem they encountered, it is fair to say there was a good chance for a podium today for this team.
They will most likely see this as a great preparation for next weekend’s race in Dubai for the 24H Series. This time, they will go twice around the clock.
Race Result here
Image: Mikaël Grenier Facebook
