• Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera secure the first victory of the 2025 season
• Points finish for Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Célia Martin in car number 85 in eighth place
• Fourth (#92) and 13th (#85) position in the LMGT3 team and driver standings

Imola. The Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche with Ryan Hardwick (USA), Richard Lietz (Austria) and Riccardo Pera (Italy) behind the wheel celebrated its debut victory at the Six Hours of Imola. The Iron Dames sister car with Rahel Frey (Switzerland), Michelle Gatting (Denmark) and Célia Martin (France) finished the second round of the FIA WEC Endurance Championship in eighth place. This means that both Manthey entered cars have now scored their first important championship points.

In overcast but dry conditions, Bronze drivers Ryan Hardwick and Célia Martin started the six-hour race on the 4.909-kilometre Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari from seventh (#92) and 14th (#85) on the grid. The two Porsche 911 GT3 R maintained these positions throughout the early stages of the second round of the World Endurance Championship, but a collision involving the number 85 car on lap 18 and the resulting drive-through penalty dropped Martin back to 17th place before the first pit stop. However, the Frenchwoman was not to be defeated by this setback and worked her way up to twelfth place by the time of the first driver change. The Manthey 1st Phorm sister car was manoeuvred into the top five by American driver Hardwick at the end of his double stint. Rahel Frey and Riccardo Pera took over with just over four hours to go and, after the pit stops had initially set the two Manthey cars back, they made a strong comeback.

Frey was able to hand over the pink Iron Dames Porsche to her team-mate Michelle Gatting in eleventh place after 119 laps. Riccardo Pera spent a little longer in the number 92, benefiting from the team's strategic decision not to pit for a driver change under the Virtual Safety Car after just under four hours of racing, unlike many other teams. The Italian moved up two places to third until the restart and used this position to take the lead after a penalty on the leading BMW (#46). Michelle Gatting also put in a strong performance, taking advantage of the GT field being bunched up by the Safety Car period: the Dane fought her way up three positions to eighth, which she defended until the end of the race. Richard Lietz, who took over the steering wheel in the lead about an hour before the end of the race, also delivered a flawless performance until the very last second: After a thrilling duel in the final laps, he won with 0.316 seconds ahead of Kelvin van der Linde (#46) - the closest result in the history of the LMGT3 class.

This marks not only the first victory of the 2025 season, but also some important points for Manthey: Lietz, Hardwick and Pera take fourth place in the LMGT3 team and driver standings (25 points) with the Manthey 1st Phorm debut victory. The Iron Dames with Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Célia Martin are 13th with four points.

The next race in the FIA WEC Endurance Championship is the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on 10 May. This marks the final event before the season's highlight at Le Mans in June.

Quotes on the 6 Hours of Imola:

Rahel Frey, Porsche 911 GT3 R #85: “Eighth place today, and our first points in WEC this season. This is definitely a good step in the right direction. The sister Porsche car won the LMGT3 race today, and I want to congratulate them. It is a big achievement and shows the potential of the team and the car, but it also means that we have simply made too many mistakes today – mistakes we cannot make at this level. That is something we must work on, but we will be back stronger in Spa where we will fight back.”

Michelle Gatting, Porsche 911 GT3 R #85: “The second race of the FIA WEC here in Imola is done. I'm very happy for the sister car that won the race, the first win of the season for Manthey. We managed to finish in P8 and finally score some points - of course it is disappointing to finish off the podium when the sister car wins, but now we have to go home and analyze to see where we can improve and look forward to the next race at Spa, for sure we will come back even stronger.”

Célia Martin, Porsche 911 GT3 R #85: “So, our second WEC race for the Iron Dames with Manthey is over and we are in the points, which was our goal. We might have hoped for more points, but we made some improvements as well as some mistakes which we will learn from and come back stronger. I'm really hopeful that it will all pay off in Spa and we can finally show what our potential really is."

Ryan Hardwick, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “What a victory. This is my first one in the WEC, so it is a very, very special day for me. Imola is the very first track I raced on in Europe many years ago, so to have my first win here alongside my great teammates Riccardo and Richie and also as part of this historic Manthey Porsche team is just special. We definitely did not have the fastest car today, but we had the best handling and thanks to our engineers and team we were able to keep up with the strong field. Richard did an amazing job at the end of the race to hold off a very fast BMW and I take my hat off to him, I don't know how many drivers could have done that. A lot of credit goes to him for this win, but it was a real team effort, and we are really excited and optimistic about the rest of the season.”

Richard Lietz, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “It was a very intense and challenging race. The other teams made a few mistakes during the race, but we managed to stay flawless for the entire six hours and that was the deciding factor in our victory. I fought a tough but also fun battle with the BMW right up to the end and I'm delighted that it worked out this way in the end. Thanks to Ryan, Riccardo and the team, without them this would not have been possible.”

Riccardo Pera, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “Winning the race in Imola, my home race, my second victory in WEC and the first victory with Manthey, is an unbelievable feeling! The race went well – Ryan and I made up quite a few positions, and then Richie finished the job for us! Overall, this is very special. Now I am really looking forward to the race in Spa, the motivation is very high!”

Patrick Arkenau, Division Manager Racing, Manthey Racing GmbH: “Our first win in the 2025 WEC at Imola. We are obviously very happy to have bounced back like this after the disappointing race weekend in Qatar - although the result certainly does not reflect the power dynamics of the field, we simply made the difference today with a flawless and excellent race from both driver and crew to win the race. To defend the lead the way Richard did was simply world class and once again shows his talent and experience. We were finally able to battle with the other cars here again, which is an important step forward for us compared to Qatar. We also improved with the Iron Dames car, finishing eighth, and are very pleased with the progress we have made here. Unfortunately, Celia had contact with another car relatively early in the race, which was penalised by the WEC. After that, the three of them put up a great fight and set a good pace. There are a lot of positives to take away from Imola. We have made progress in many areas as a team and hope to take another step forward at Spa and fight for wins and podiums with both cars.”