• WEC race at Spa marked by accidents, safety car and yellow flag phases
• Seventh place for Manthey 1st Phorm with starting number 92 and tenth place for the Iron Dames Porsche number 85
• Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera maintain fourth place in the LMGT3 championship standings  

Spa-Francorchamps. The Iron Dames and Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R finished the third race of the 2025 WEC season in tenth (#85) and seventh (#92) positions. The six-hour race on the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was dominated by numerous yellow flag and safety car periods. Ryan Hardwick (USA), Richard Lietz (Austria) and Riccardo Pera (Italy) defended fourth place in the LMGT3 team and drivers' championships. Rahel Frey (Switzerland), Michelle Gatting (Denmark) and Célia Martin (France) also achieved their second consecutive points finish.

The Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps began in sunny but already unsettled conditions for the two Manthey cars. by numerous accidents, safety car and yellow flag periods from the outset, Célia Martin and Ryan Hardwick battled their way forward from eighth (#92) and 13th (#85) on the grid: Despite a collision through no fault of his own and a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, Hardwick handed over the #92 car in fourth place after 51 laps and just under two and a half hours. Meanwhile, Martin, in the Iron Dames Porsche, collected her first WEC lead kilometres after a strong stint and pitted for a driver change one lap after its sister car. But before Rahel Frey could take over, the number 85 car had to serve a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement.

The Silver drivers and engineers of both cars were subsequently left with the task of managing the repeatedly interrupted race and the corresponding pit stop strategies under the conditions prevailing in the LMGT3 field. However, especially after the GT3 teams brought out their Gold and Platinum drivers for the last hour and a half of the race, it became apparent that cars 85 and 92 were unable to keep up with the pace of their top rivals. Despite flawless stints, Michelle Gatting and Richard Lietz, who had been further set back by another 10-second penalty for a collision earlier in the race, finished the weekend in tenth (#85) and seventh (#92) place in front of a record crowd of nearly 100,000 spectators.

Manthey 1st Phorm and the Iron Dames thus collected further crucial championship points. Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Célia Martin remain in 16th place in the LMGT3 standings after the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera held on to fourth place in the championship standings with an additional six points.

"It was a challenging weekend and a very chaotic six-hour race for us here at Spa-Francorchamps. All our drivers did an excellent job - the bronze and silver drivers were able to make up for a lot with their performance. Towards the end of the race it got clear that we still lacked the capacity to keep up with the front runners. We hope to be able to prove ourselves further up the field at Le Mans, where we will be represented by not two but three Porsches.”, summarised Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey Racing GmbH.

Next on the WEC calendar is the 93rd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours from 11 to 15 June. After winning the GT championship in the 2024/25 ALMS season, Manthey will enter another Porsche 911 GT3 R with number 90 in the legendary endurance race, driven by Antares Au, Klaus Bachler and Loek Hartog.

Quotes on the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps:

Rahel Frey, Porsche 911 GT3 R #85: “It was an eventful race with many ups and downs. We were in the lead and then fell back to the last places. P10 means one point in the championship for us, which is what we take away from this race. But we clearly need to improve because we want to achieve more. We need to find the right course and I think we also need a little more luck. Nevertheless, many thanks to the team for their hard work and next up is Le Mans, so we are looking forward!”

Michelle Gatting, Porsche 911 GT3 R #85: “We managed to drive into the points again, which is the positive we can take away from today's race. Obviously we wanted to finish higher, at one point it looked very good, but once again it was not really our race - we fought until the end and hopefully sooner or later it will pay off in our favour.”

Célia Martin, Porsche 911 GT3 R #85: “So that’s it for the third round of WEC here in Spa. It wasn’t a perfect day for the team. My stint went well overall, apart from a mistake which cost us time. We’re going to analyse what we can improve on over the coming days so we’re in a better position for Le Mans in June. I’m sure we’ll get stronger and learn from this.“

Ryan Hardwick, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “That was a very eventful race at Spa. Lots of safety cars and full course yellows interrupted the flow of the race, and that set us back a little bit. I really enjoyed the car and had a great start to the race - I got us up to second place, but then we had a really unfortunate speeding penalty in the pit lane which set us back. Since that penalty we have been clawing our way back: Riccardo drove a great race to get us back into the top ten and Richie brought us home with some solid points. We definitely have some work to do before Le Mans - we're just not fast enough compared to the field at the moment, to win the big race we need to be better - that's our clear goal and I have trust in our team that we can do it.”

Richard Lietz, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “It was an exciting WEC race with lots of accidents and aggressive position battles. We got through the race well, but not completely free of mistakes. In the end, we lacked pace and the many race stops didn't play into our hands with a double stint set-up. Of course we had hoped for more, but now we are fully focused on Le Mans.”

Riccardo Pera, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “Seventh place in the end is definitely not what we were aiming for, but we maximised the potential we had this weekend, so I'm still very happy with our performance. Ryan did a great job, and Richard did well in the end to secure some important points for us. I'm looking forward to the highlight of the season at Le Mans in June!”

Results Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps:

LMGT3
1. Heriau/Mann/Rovera (FRA/USA/ITA), Ferrari #21 
2. Gattuso/Levorato/Olsen (ITA/ITA/NOR), Ford #88 
3. Flohr/Castellacci/Rigon (SUI/ITA/ITA), Ferrari #54

7. Hardwick/Lietz/Pera (USA/AUT/ITA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #92

10. Frey/Gatting/Martin (SUI/DNK/FRA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #85

WEC race calendar 2025:
21-22 February 2025 I Official Prologue 
28 February 2025 I Qatar 1812Km 
20 April 2025 I 6 Hours of Imola 
10 May 2025 I TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 
14-15 June 2025 I 24 Hours of Le Mans 
13 July 2025 I Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo 
7 September 2025 I Lone Star Le Mans
28 September 2025 I 6 Hours of Fuji 
8 November 2025 I Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain