Dubai: The Belgian Audi Club team WRT, with their Audi R8 LMS, won the 11th Hankook 24H Dubai at the Autodrome, crossing the finish line with 588 laps on the board and winning by a margin of five laps over second-placed Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 and eight laps ahead of third placed C.ABT Racing Audi R8 LMS.
With 98 cars flagged off on Friday afternoon by Shaikh Juma Al Makotum, accompanied by ATCUAE President Mohammad Bin Sulayem, the attrition was inevitably high as traffic became a major factor during the 24 hours that followed.
The overall winning Belgian Audi Club Team WRT outfit of Belgian driver Laurens Vanthoor, Frenchman Alain Ferté, and Englishmen Michael Meadows and Stuart Leonard took the lead in the final hours, and thereafter managed to control the race to take a first victory for Audi in the Hankook 24H Dubai at the Autodrome.
Vanthoor, one of the winning drivers said, “It’s a very important victory for Audi to win the Hankook 24H Dubai. I did not expect it to be so hard with so many cars, at times there were some crazy things out on track. But this is a great victory which we will enjoy together as a team.”
It was a big day for Lechner Racing ME with the Emirati trio of Shaikh Hasher Al Maktoum, Saeed Al Mehairi and Bashar Mardini - who shared their Porsche 991 with Sven Müller and Jaap van Lagen to take victory in the 991 Cup Class.
“This is really a great victory for our team. We must thank Lechner Racing for a fantastic job throughout the weekend. We had some bad luck before the race and things did not look good. But the team was very professional and turned around the fortunes in a fantastic way. We are very happy.”
It was double delight for the Walter Lechner run outfit as they claimed the double by also taking second place in the 991 Cup Class with their second car driven by Hannes Waimer, Wolfgang Triller, Charlie Frijns, Edward Jones and Christopher Zöchling - the latter two having started their careers in the UAE karting scene.
Dubai-based Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing team took top honours in the TCR Class for the second year in a row the with Phil Quaife sharing the SEAT Leon with the Moutran brothers Rami, Ramzi and Nabil.
Ramzi Moutran said: “It was an amazing race very tough, 100 cars on track you had to fight every inch and watch out everywhere. We also had to push all the time, but we did it two years in a row. Very proud of the entire team, the troops, the mechanics - any issues that popped up they were on it. Of course winning at Dubai Autodrome, where we started our racing is always extra special.”
It was, however, heartbreak for pre-race favourites: Abu Dhabi Racing by Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3 led by Khalid Al Qubaisi when, shortly before the halfway mark, the car driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen at the time was involved in an on-track incident which led to their retirement.
Bleekemolen explained: “I tried to overtake one of the slower GT3s, a Porsche, and then he just turned in on me and I thought he had seen me but apparently not; he pushed me onto the curb and then we touched.
“I tried to do everything to avoid it but I could not do anything more. I mean it should not have happened anyway, we need to anticipate on people not seeing us which I always do,” lamented the Dutchman.
