Dominant pole position for Pure Rxcing in Michelin 24H Dubai qualifying
Incredibly close competition, particularly in the headline GT3 class and the 992 class, made for a thrilling start to the 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy at Dubai Autodrome today, Friday, 10 January, where Pure Rxcing secured a dominant outright pole position for the Michelin 24H DUBAI.
Scorching pace from Thomas Preining and Harry King, in sessions three and two respectively in GT3 qualifying, and a good lap in session one from Aliaksandr Malykhin, ensured the No.92 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) concluded qualifying half a second clear with an average time of 1m58.353 seconds.
“The team’s done an amazing job, we had good preparation for the event yesterday and this morning so we’re really happy with the car we’ve got at the moment, reflected Preining, “All in all, if everything stays the same it is the perfect starting position and we’ll try to stay there. We’re still learning about the Michelin tyres, little unknowns, but honestly it’s working well.”
Joining Pure Rxcing on the front row for the 20th anniversary 24H DUBAI is the No.16 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Winward Racing, which also claimed the Pro-Am class pole in the hands of Rinat Salikhov, Victor Shaytar and Gabriele Piana. The Am class pole, meanwhile went to Paradine Competition’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO driven by Ahmad Al Harthy, Darren Leung and Toby Sowery.
Qualifying for the 992 class also provided terrific entertainment, with all three sessions very hotly contested. Red Camel-Jordans.nl wrapped-up pole with Fabian Danz, Rik Breukers and Luc Breukers producing an average time of 2m02.508 seconds. The highlight was in session two, Rik Breukers delivering the best 992 lap of all with an impressive 2m01.843 seconds.
SebLaJoux Racing enjoyed a fantastic start to the 24H SERIES by locking-out the 992 Am class with the team’s No.888 car on pole, featuring Mathys Jaubert – fastest overall in session three – Louis Perrot and Sebastien Lajoux. With little to separate, the sister No.992, driven by Alexandr Artemyev, Paul Meijer and a doubling-up Perrot, was second in 992 Am and third overall.
In GTX, the Rossa LM GT topped the times by over 0.7 seconds on its competitive world debut but an unfortunate error in the driver running order – Nikita Mazepin taking session one when it should’ve been the squad’s Am driver – meant the Graff Racing entry was penalised and ended fifth.
Leipert Motorsport, therefore, was promoted onto the GTX pole, largely thanks to an exceptional effort by Brendon Leitch in qualifying two where he produced the fastest time of the three sessions with a lap of 2m00.012 seconds in his Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO, shared with Gerhard Watzinger and Don Yount.
Team CMR headed GT4 with its Ginetta G56 GT4 EVO, an average of 2m09.618 seconds delivered by father and son Lawrence and Freddie Tomlinson and team-mate Nico Prost, to secure the class pole by well over a second. In TCE-TCX, AsBest Racing claimed pole with an average of 2m18.093 seconds from its No.102 Cupra TCR DSG piloted by Lutz Obermann, Junichi Umemoto and Henrik Sandell.
GT3: With the sun setting over Dubai, the first of the GT3 qualifying sessions began just after 17.00 hours local time. Within just three minutes, though, red flags were swiftly shown when the No.99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II hit the barriers hard after making contact with the No.11 HOFOR Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
After a delay of around 45 minutes, the opening session re-started and there was nothing to choose between the lead contenders. Dinamic GT’s Thomas Kiefer ended the run fastest in his Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), a time of 1m58.807 seconds, a fraction ahead of Alexander Bukhantsov in HAAS RT’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II – the provisional GT3 Am pole.
Third quickest was Ahmad Al Harthy in the Am class Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 EVO, the early overall pace setter producing a time of 1m58.845 seconds. Underlining the competitiveness of the session, just 0.150 seconds covered the top five runners.
Session two was every bit as enthralling, Harry King making his presence felt in style with nine minutes to go by punching in the fastest lap so far, 1m58.361 seconds, in the No.92 Pure Rxcing entry. King duly reduced that lap to 1m58.187 seconds with four minutes to go.
Into the final run, Porsche held first and second with Pure Rxcing 0.4 seconds ahead of Dinamic GT. Winward Racing’s Pro-Am class Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO and AlManar Racing by Team WRT’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO, with Darren Leung, Daniel Harper and Max Hesse, were also in the mix.
Battle resumed with former DTM Champion Thomas Preining at the wheel of the Pure Rxcing car and fellow Austrian Klaus Bachler in for Dinamic GT, and it was Preining who made the running with a scorching first lap of 1m58.001 seconds – eclipsing King’s best effort, the quickest time of the week.
Pitting with four minutes to run, Preining’s performance had already made the outright pole position certain. Bachler’s run didn’t come alive, instead Gabriele Piana set a time of 1m58.544 seconds in Winward’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO to leap to second overall and take the Pro-Am pole position.
Bachler ended the session with a time of 1m58.825 seconds to claim third on the grid for Dinamic GT, with Hesse securing fourth in the AlManar Racing by Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Second in Pro-Am, fifth on the overall GT3 grid, was the No.88 Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Blake McDonald, Dustin Blattner and Patrik Liddy. Third in Pro-Am and sixth overall went to the No.91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) with Alfred and Robert Renauer and Ralf Bohn.
992: Fulgenzi Racing topped a close opening session for the 992 class with Andrea Girondi lapping with a time of 2m02.895 seconds in the No.917 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), less than a tenth of a second from the 992 Am provisional pole-sitter Abdulla Ali Al Khelaifi for QMMF by HRT. Fabian Danz, in the Red Camel-Jordans.nl car, was third – leaping into contention with less than six minutes to go.
Session two delivered an exceptional lap from Rik Breukers in the No.909 Red Camel-Jordans.nl, the Dutchman producing a time of 2m01.843s with a single flying lap before pitting with around five minutes to go – striving to limit tyre degradation for brother Luc ahead of session three. Ultimately, this lap was the best of all in 992 qualifying.
Enrico Fernando Fulgenzi was sixth in session, but kept the No.917 Fulgenzi Racing car second overall, while the 992 Am provisional pole was held by the No.888 SebLajoux Racing car after a time of 2m02.365 seconds from Louis Perrot.
Excitement built into session three with very little to choose between the lead contenders, and a time of 2m02.526 seconds from Luc Breukers proved enough for the Red Camel-Jordans.nl squad to take the 992 pole position by just under 0.2 seconds on average times.
Mathys Jaubert was the fastest driver in the third period, his best time of 2m02.004 seconds helping to seal an excellent 992 Am pole for SebLajoux Racing in the No.888 car – a few tenths ahead of the sister No.992 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) with Louis Perrot, who doubles-up in Dubai, at the wheel.
Duel Racing by Huber ended 992 qualifying fourth overall, with drivers Ramzi Moutran, Theo Oeverhaus and Phil Keen, with Fulgenzi Racing – Andrea Girondi, Enrico Fernando Felgenzi and Sam Jongejan – fifth.
GT4, GTX, TCE-TCX: With five and a half minutes to go in the first of the three 15-minute qualifying sessions including the GTX, GT4 and TCE-TCX classes, red flags were shown when the No.427 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, with Gero Bauknecht at the wheel, came to a halt on track.
At that point, Nikita Mazepin held the fastest time in GTX in the Graff Racing-run Rossa LM GT with a best time of 2m01.767 seconds – prior to a spin which caused a flat-spot and resulted in a necessary tyre change.
In GT4, Lawrence Tomlinson was quickest in the Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT4 EVO having produced a lap of 2m11.227 seconds, and in TCE-TCX AsBest Racing’s Lutz Obermann sat atop the class with a time of 2m15.854 seconds in the Cupra TCR DSG – and that’s how it stayed after the resumption.
Session two began apace and Brendon Leitch rocketed to the fastest time yet in GTX, 2m00.633 seconds, in the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO, before going quicker still with 2m00.012 seconds. Likewise, in GT4, Freddie Tomlinson significantly improved on his father’s time in session one with a time of 2m08.984 seconds to put even more distance to the competition.
Harrison Newey bettered Mazepin’s earlier effort in the Rossa LM GT, by four tenths of a second, and going into the third and final session only seven 1000ths split Graff Racing and Leipert. Nothing changed at the top, with Graff fastest from Leipert thanks to a good run from Roman Rusinov, but due to the penalty for the former, Leitch, Watzinger and Yount seized pole.
Nico Prost produced Team CMR’s best time so far in the third session, taking another 0.3 seconds off the Ginetta squad’s previous, to ensure the GT4 pole by 1.2 seconds from WS Racing’s BMW M4 GT4 (G82) piloted by Keith Gatehouse, George King and Jeroen Bleekemolen.
In TCE-TCX it was a front-row lock-out for AsBest Racing with its No.102 Cupra TCR DSG – driven by Lutz Obermann, Junichi Umemoto and Henrik Sandell – and the No.101 SEAT Leon Cup Racer featuring Nadir Zuhour, Christian Ladurner and Pia Ohlsson.
After this evening’s upcoming night practice, the cars will be back on track in Dubai for a half-hour warm-up session at 09.40 local time tomorrow morning, Saturday, 11 January, ahead of the start of the Michelin 24H Dubai at 13.00.
Comments
Log in to comment the article