Closely contested, full of twists and turns, in almost wintery weather, especially in the second half, the WRT team’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO took the win after fighting its way up the order. That’s a fair summary of the Paul Ricard 6 Hours, the opening round of the GTWC Europe championship, in which the new P Zero DHG tyres made their debut, for use by cars in all the the Pirelli-shod GT championships.

The first endurance race of the season, had the large crowd enthralled on Saturday night all the way to the end. It many ways, it was a sort of prologue to the 24 Hours of Spa which will take place in early June, because of the weather and track temperature, as well as for the large 59 car entry and the intensity of the battles on track. At the flag, it was the 32 BMW driven by Charles Weerts, Ugo De Wilde and Kevin van der Linde who gradually, lap by lap made its way up the order from eighth on the grid, catching out its opponents to pull off a surprise win. Behind the BMW came two Porsche 911 GT3 R (992): the Rutronik Racing car driven by Sven Müller, Patric Niederhauser and Alessio Picariello and the Schumacher CLRT car in the hands of Ayhancan Güven, Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler. Proving just how competitive is this series, three other marques filled the next few places: Mercedes-AMG of Team Mann-Filter, the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin and the CSA Racing McLaren.

“Watching such close racing is not only a pleasure, it’s also professionally satisfying,” commented Matteo Braga, Circuit Activity Manager Pirelli. “The weather challenged the teams and drivers as they adapted to a brand-new product in very changeable conditions, going from warm weather on Friday to the cold of Saturday night. I’d say that everyone coped well with the unknowns. As for the DHG, it was tested under extreme conditions and the response to the stresses was such that the teams were able to play for victory at all times during the race.”

On Sunday, the GTW European Series and the GT4 European Series races in which all cars were also running the Pirelli DHG tyres, were equally exciting. In GT2, the Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo run by Micanek Motorsport won both Race 1 and Race 2, in the latter on WHB wet weather tyres as the race was run in quite heavy rain. In GT4, Academy Motorsport’s la Ford Mustang GT4 2024 won Race 1. In the afternoon, victory went to Audi R8 LMS di Speedcar in mixed dry and wet track conditions, competitors opting for the DHG slicks. 
 



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