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Al Faisal finishes 10th in Hungaroring

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MOGYOROD, Hungary: Oman’s Al Faisal al Zubair recovered strongly from a poor start in traffic into turn one to finish 10th overall in the sixth round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup at Hungary’s Hungaroring on Saturday.


The BWT Lechner Racing Team driver started the race from sixth position, but dropped three places into turn one and then fought back well to maintain that position until the closing laps in a race that was dominated by his two BWT Lechner Racing Team colleagues, Michael Ammermuller and Julien Andlauer, the latter maintaining a slim championship lead to take into the short summer break.


Al Zubair said: “I struggled with the car all race. The mid-corner speed was not great I did not feel comfortable the whole race. I was happy to bring it back in the top 10. I had a bit of contact with (Ayhancan) Guven at the start, but it was fine.”


Dutchman Larry Ten Voorde finished third overall and Cypriot Tio Ellinas and Luxembourg’s Dylan Pereira rounded off the top five.


Andlauer and Ammermuller lined up on the front row of the grid with Al Zubair in sixth place with Lechner cars dominating the top end of the field on team principal Walter Lechner’s 70th birthday.


Warm and dry conditions were a far cry from the rain in training on Friday afternoon and Andlauer maintained his advantage through the opening corners of the 15-lap race. Al Zubair lost out in traffic into the first corner and slipped three places to ninth, but Thai driver Khatadhee Kusuri spun out on to the grass after a collision fro behind by Jaap van Lagen on turn two and a yellow flag was raised in sector one.


The safety car halted race proceedings soon afterwards and returned to the pits at the end of lap two with Andlauer leading from Ammermuller and Ten Voorde with Al Zubair in ninth. Van Lagen continued with a damaged car down in 29th place before pitting on lap four.


The leaders held station through laps three, four and five, as Al Zubair came under pressure from Jaxon Evans on lap six. Andlauer and Ammermuller continued to head the field through the middle of the race, with Ten Voorde and Tio Ellinas leading the chasing group until Ammermuller made his way into the lead at the expense of his French team-mate on lap eight.


There were no changes within the top 10 into lap 11 of 15 and Ammermuller held on to pip Andlauer to the chequered flag by 2.96 seconds and reduce the Frenchman’s championship lead to one point heading into the four-week summer break.


Al Zubair managed to stave off Evans’s challenge to record yet another vital points’ scoring finish in 10th place after Joey Mawson sneaked through over the closing laps.


Action in the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup resumes at Spa in Belgium after the summer break on August 30-September 1.


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