GT: Porsche's Herberth Motorsport wins 24 Hours of Dubai

Herberth Motorsport clinched overall victory at the season-opening 24 Hours of Dubai after taking the lead during the night with Porsche works driver Brendon Hartley, Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn, Daniel Allemann and Alfred Renauer. The winners ran total of 578 laps – leading for 380 – at the 3.35-mile Dubai Autodrome. It's the fifth event win for Porsche, who also brought home victories from 2008-2010 and 2014.

Manthey-Racing, with Porsche works driver Sven Müller, Matteo Cairoli, Otto Klohs and Jochen Krumbach, secured second place, two laps down to the leader, over three-time Dubai winner Black Falcon's Mercedes AMG GT3 and Audi Between Herberth and Matheny, the two cars led for about three-quarters of the race.

A collision involving Matheny driver Otto Klohs and another car forced the No. 12 in for repairs on the left front side That gave the Herberth team a slight advantage to which it held on for the final eight hours of the race.

The victory at Dubai is the first for the latest 911 GT3 R at a 24-hour race. A total of 92 vehicles were entered.

"That was a great team effort from Herberth Motorsport," Hartley said. "I only met the squad for the first time on Wednesday and I immediately felt at home. My first outing in a GT-Porsche was a great experience and I hope that I'll be back again next year. I love driving the 911 GT3 R on the road and now I've also fallen in love with the racing version."

"To begin my first season as a Porsche works driver on the podium is fantastic," Muller added. "We put in a very strong team performance. Towards the end we had a puncture so we couldn't fight for victory, but second place is more than we had expected."

The two Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3s were in contention for a podium finish, but when the sun rose Khaled Al Qubaisi, driving the No. 2 car, spun and collected the #963 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini, and both cars were forced tor retire.

Former Formula 1 and rally veteran Robert Kubica, with teammates Robert Lukas, Marcin Jedlinski, Wolf Henzler and Santiago Creel, was forced to retire when their Forch Racing powered by Olimp entry suffered mechanical issues.

Reigning 24H Series teams' champion Hofor Racing won the A6-Am class on its first competitive outing with the new Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Ginetta scored a 1-2 finish in the SP3-GT4 class. Optimum Motorsport (with drivers Stewart Linn, Ade Barwick, Dan O'Brien and William More) easily finished ahead of Century Motorsport.

In its competition debut, the Audi RS3 LMS took the TCR category win with the Cadspeed Racing with Atech entry.