Halfway through the Gulf 12 Hours from the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. and three different manufactures occupy the top three positions. All on the lead lap and all in contention for the Gulf 12 Hours victory.
The #3 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Stephen Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Davide Rigon won part one of the Gulf 12 Hours by 13.827 seconds over the 2013 Gulf 12 Hours winners Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi in the #1 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3. The #59 McLaren 650S GT3 of Rob Bell, Kevin Éstre and Álvaro Parente finished third, just over a minute and three seconds back of the winning Ferrari. The leaders completed 157 laps in part one.
Richard Muscat, Hubert Haupt and Abdulaziz Al Faisal finished in fourth place in the #2 Black Falcom Mercedes and got back on the lead lap late in part one. They finished just over a minute and 24 seconds back. Rounding out the top five is Kessel Racing's #11 Ferrari driven by Isaac Tutumlu, Marco Frezza and Vadim Gitlin, as they finished a lap back of the leaders.
The #10 GT Russian Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 shared by Marko Asmer, Alexey Vasilyev and Karim Al Azhari finished sixth position, one lap down, ahead three Ferraris. Dragon Racing's #88 Ferrari with Sean Walkinshaw, Jordan Grogor and Mohammed Jawa finished seventh with two AF Corses in tow. The #4 Ferrari came home in eighth with drivers Piergiuseppe Perazzini, Marco Cioci and Felipe Barreiros. The #5 Ferrari ended part one in ninth being driven by Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Andrea Rizzoli. All three Ferraris are two laps down.
The first of the Cup Class Porsche 911 GT3 Cups, the #33 MRS-GT Racing Porsche rounds out the top ten with drivers Ralf Bohn, Siegfried Venema and Ilya Melnikov. The MRS-GT Porsche is seven laps down.
The top CN class Wolf GB08 is the #45 Avelon Formula entry being shared by Ivan Bellarosa and Guglielmo Belotti. They are in 12th position, ten laps down.
Other notable entries:
The #60 McLaren of Peter Kox, Nico Pronk and Gilles Vannelet is 18th, 15 laps off the leaders.
The #99 Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Jorge Lorenzo, Liam Talbot, Marco Zanuttini and Jacques Duyver is 19th, 30 laps down.
The #69 Gulf Racing Lamborghini FL2 of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Frederic Fatien spend a fair amount of time in the garage finished 22nd, completing only 91 laps in part one.
The final six hour part of the Gulf 12 Hours will begin at 9:00 a.m. ET (6:00 p.m. in Abu Dhabi) with he field lined up in the order they finished part one with the intervals remaining intact.
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