DUBAI: Oman’s Al Faisal al Zubair will tackle his second endurance race this weekend when he teams up with HTP Winward Motorsport to tackle the Hankook 24Hr Dubai 2020 in a four-man team at the helm of a Mercedes AMG GT3 in the GT3-Pro category.
The now famous event takes place at the Dubai Autodrome and will be the longest race of the talented Omani’s young career since he switched from Porsche saloon car racing in the Middle East and the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup, winning his regional series on two occasions. The event has attracted a large number of renowned international drivers in the endurance discipline.
Al Zubair, Maximilian Gotz and Dominik Baumann qualified in pole position for Al Zubair’s debut event at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi last month, but an engine coil issue cost the team a potential victory in the 12-hour race.
On this occasion, Al Zubair teams up with Gotz and fellow German drivers Maximilian Buhk and Christopher Bruck in the same team. Team principals praised the Omani’s performance in Abu Dhabi and his speed at dealing with the car, despite it being his first participation in endurance racing.
Al Zubair is planning to use these events as vital training before he embarks upon a full career in worldwide endurance racing next season. He said: “Abu Dhabi was a very good race for me in terms of performance with the team. Obviously luck was not on our side after practice and qualifying on pole. But we know we have a good team for this weekend’s race and a good car. I am hoping that it all works out and we get a good result.”
The HTP Winward Motorsport team faces fierce competition in the GT3-Pro class from the likes of the Black Falcon Mercedes team, the Audi R8 of the MS7 by WRT operation, the Porsche GT3s of GPX Racing and Dinamic Motorsport, the British Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3, etc.
Unofficial testing will be permitted for all teams on Wednesday (January 8) and the first official practice session gets underway on Thursday morning followed by the qualifying sessions in the afternoon.
Cars will assemble on the starting grid of the 16-turn, 5.93 km Dubai Autodrome circuit at 14.00hrs on Friday afternoon in preparation for the green light at 15.00hrs. The chequered flag will be waved after 24 hours of racing at 15.00hrs on Saturday afternoon.
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