Bentley’s motorsport team is quite chuffed today as the Bentley Continental GT3 race car brings home satisfying results in its first-ever race. The GT3 finished fourth in the Gulf 12 Hours of Abu Dhabi, the test race as Bentley looks at it, losing the podium to a Ferrari 458 after a close fight.

The Gulf Race was the last piece of puzzle in the GT3’s preparation for a full time work in the 2014 WEC and Le Mans, as well as other endurance races in Europe and UK. The race showed the Bentley Continental GT3 is lives up to the expectations in terms of performance and reliability.

The new Bentley Boys also showed great performance. The British racers Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Andy Meyrick were delighted with the performance of the car in its first event. Abu Dhabi race provided them a great environment to get to grips with the car’s performance in a real race. The team will now analyse the huge amount of data collected over the course of the race, and continue to develop the car in preparation for a full season of racing in the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series, beginning at Monza on 12th April.

Bentley’s Director of Motorsport, Brian Gush, comments: “In running an all-new car for the first time, our main goal today was to finish the race and be consistent. We’ve achieved this, and then to finish fourth in a race with such established competition is extremely encouraging. We leave Abu Dhabi with confidence that we will have a reliable and competitive package for 2014, when the hard work really starts.”

Here’s a few handpicked pictures of the Bentley Continental GT3 in the Gulf 12 Hours of Abu Dhabi: