Thursday, Jan 09, 2014
Dubai: The UAE’s Khalid Al Qubaisi remains confident he can complete a hat-trick of victories in the Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai with Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon after a dramatic qualifying session at Dubai Autodrome on Thursday.
Al Qubaisi, who is sharing the driving of the team’s Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 with Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen, Germany’s Bernd Schneider and Sweden’s Andreas Simonsen, was not concerned after the quartet were narrowly beaten to pole position.
They will start the race at 2pm on Friday second on the grid behind the Chevrolet Corvette C6-R of the Dutch-based V8 Racing. But after the qualifying session the Emirati driver was optimistic he can deliver another big victory to Abu Dhabi Racing after last month’s Gulf 12 Hours triumph.
“We’re not in pole this time, but we’re not worried because we’re the fastest of the potential winners here,” Al Qubaisi said. “The car in front of us has had its moment of glory and it may cost us some time in the race.
“But we’re looking at the big picture — we’re on the first row and everything is looking good. Our pace is good, all the drivers are feeling good, the car is great and the team is in very good shape.
“The main thing we have to do is stay out of trouble in terms of accidents, picking up penalties or tangling with other cars.”
It was Bleekemolen, the two-time Porsche Supercup champion, who set the second-fastest time in qualifying behind another Dutchman, Nicky Pastorelli.
Pastorelli made it clear that one doesn’t necessarily need the latest GT3 machinery to drive a quick lap around the 5.399km circuit.
With the 2006 model V8 Racing Corvette C6-R he is sharing with Wolf Nathan, Danny Werkman, Rick Abresch and Alex van‘t Hoff, he set a lap time of 1min 57.282sec to claim pole.
Pastorelli said: “It was perfect. The car had only two practice laps in the morning, but it handled really great. Most importantly we were on track at the exact right moment, we had no traffic and the temperatures were just right — and of course I did a good lap. This is the result of a combination of these things. I was surptised by the lap time, we were expecting 1 minute 59 seconds or 1 minute 58 seconds, but not as quick as we did.
“Of course we will not have this pace in the race. We will have weight added for the race, we will have a full tank and you can’t push the car for 24 hours like this. But we will try to be the quickest and we will see what the pace is.
“The only real advantage you have starting from pole in a 24-hour race is that your chances of getting caught up in an accident in the first corner, or first lap, is small compared to being in the middle of the field.”
Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon Mercedes — the sister team of Al Qubaisi and co — with Prince Abdul Aziz Al Faisal in the line-up, will start from fourth and directly behind their teammates.
Topping the A3T Class was the Dubai-based Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat, with three brothers — Sami, Nabeel and Ramzi Moutran — along with Phil Quaife doing the driving. They will start from 50th on the grid.
Fastest in Class A2 was the LAP57 Honda with UAE champions Umair Khan, Mohammad Al Owais and Nader Zuhour sharing the driving with Japan’s Junichi Umemoto and Emirati driver Abdullah Al Hammadi.
Staff Report
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