Manthey has done it again. Two seasons of LMGT3 competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship have now come and gone, and both have fallen to the decorated Porsche outfit—though defending that coveted crown in 2025 required fighting off a much sterner challenge.
Things really clicked for the #92 crew when Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick took the chequered fund first-in-class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That triumph marked the Eifel-based squad's sixth success at La Sarthe, vaulting the Manthey 1st Phorm trio to the summit of the standings where they would stubbornly remain. Even a rough qualifying session in Bahrain left them stranded on the back row of the 18-strong grid for the eight-hour title-decider, but a nerve-free charge through the field to fourth place comfortably sealed the end-of-season spoils.
Pushing them hardest all year was VISTA AF Corse. Spa-Francorchamps winners Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and François Hériau were constant podium threats, but they were left lamenting a costly Imola retirement—where Mann was spun out of the lead by BMW’s Valentino Rossi—and a five-second penalty at Fuji that cruelly snatched away a Ferrari victory. Similar heartbreak followed Akkodis ASP Team, whose Lexus RC F package proved remarkably fast. The French squad's #87 car joined the #91 Manthey Porsche as the only machines to triumph more than once, with double world champion José María López, Clemens Schmid and FIA WEC newcomer Petru Umbrărescu taking dual wins in São Paulo and Sakhir despite failing to score in half the races. Their sister #78 Lexus showed serious pace too, highlighted by rising star Finn Gehrsitz's pair of pole positions.
Further down the order, a season-ending podium in Bahrain lifted the Heart of Racing Team trio of Mattia Drudi, Zacharie Robichon and Ian James to fourth in the standings. They edged out the twin TF Sport entries, where the #81 Corvette of Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy narrowly pipped team-mates Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating to fifth on precisely 81 points. Both Corvette crews tasted victory during the year. Meanwhile, the #54 VISTA Ferrari lost a win due to late-race contact in Texas, and Team WRT’s pair of BMW M4 Evos managed a brace of podiums apiece without ever finding consistent front-running speed.
United Autosports experienced a tough campaign punctuated by an inherited win in Austin and a Qatar curtain-raiser runner-up finish less than half-a-second shy of the top step. Iron Lynx saved its best for Sakhir as Maxime Martin hunted down the race-winning #87 Lexus right to the flag, while Proton Competition's Ford Mustangs showed real flashes of speed at Spa and COTA. But perhaps the most popular moment of all came in São Paulo, where home hero Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello of Racing Spirit of Léman captured pole position and delivered a gritty third-place finish by overtaking the Iron Dames Porsche in the dying moments—a performance that earned the young Brazilian the FIA WEC ‘Revelation of the Year’ honor.
