France: Team WRT driver Ahmad al Harthy says he and team-mates Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi are ready to challenge as hard as possible in this weekend’s eagerly awaited 24 Hours of Le Mans, with all free practice sessions and qualifying now complete at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The No 46 BMW M4 will line up on the sixth row of the LMGT3 grid in 12th spot for the globally renowned twice-round-the-clock race on June 15, with the trio having lucklessly missed out on the top-eight Hyperpole segment after Martin was baulked on his quickest lap in qualifying.
Starting off the week’s practice sessions for round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship on June 12, with the 18th best time in LMGT3, in the subsequent qualifying run Martin was on course to progress to Hyperpole and looked all-set to continue the team’s unbroken streak of doing so this year.
But after being blocked by one of the Hypercar class entries on his fastest lap on the 13.6-kilometre track, Martin had to settle for 12th fastest – a mere 0.3 seconds shy of the top-eight cut-off in a very competitive session featuring 23 cars. His best lap was a time of 3m56.738 seconds (207.2 km/h).
More practice running followed on June 13, and the BMW M4 was a highly competitive third quickest, only 0.4 seconds from the top of the times. Inside the top 10 again in free practice three, the squad was then 11th in the fourth and final session.
Al Harthy, who is supported by prestigious partners OQ, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Omantel and BMW Oman, goes into this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans happy with the work done on the No 46 car and especially the efforts focused on race set-up and race strategy.
Last year, the Omani achieved a superb second place finish in class on his maiden appearance in the globe’s biggest endurance race. Although qualifying for this season’s instalment didn’t go fully to plan for Team WRT, the focus on challenging for silverware is as strong as ever.
Ahmad al Harthy: “Qualifying was tough in terms of the overall pace. Obviously, there are a lot of cars that are very quick here in Le Mans. We thought we could progress to Hyperpole but, unfortunately, on the quickest lap Max [Martin} was blocked by a Hypercar. Having said that we’re looking forward to the race, we’ve been working more on the race set-up than anything else.
“It is a 24-hour race where you need maximum consistency and reliability, so much can happen and we are focused on delivering the best performance we can. We’re looking forward to being able to be competitive for the race, it’s a very tough field, it always is at Le Mans, but we know what we can do in terms of race strategy.”
Competitors have a day away from track action on Friday, ahead of a warm-up session at 12.00 local time on Saturday, before the big race itself – the 24 Hours of Le Mans – which will begin at 16.00.
FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 Driver Standings (after Rd3)
1. Aliaksander Malykhin / Joel Sturm / Klaus Bachler, 72 pts
2. Augusto Farfus / Darren Leung / Sean Gelael, 37 pts
3. Alex Riberas / Daniel Mancinelli / Ian James, 37 pts
4. Ahmad al Harthy / Maxime Martin / Valentino Rossi, 36 pts
5. Clement Mateu / Erwan Bastard / Marco Sorenson, 30 pts
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