SPA (BELGIUM): Oman’s Al Faisal al Zubair qualified in 20th position for the first of the weekend’s two Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup at Belgium’s famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, on Saturday morning.
The Lechner Racing Middle East team clocked a fastest lap of 2min 26.142sec during 11 tours of the famous Belgian circuit in a session where Dennis Olsen snatched a last gasp pole position for race one from Mattia Drudi, Michael Ammermüller and Matt Campbell with a potent lap of 2min 23.857sec.
The fastest time recorded by each driver was used to determine pole position for the first of the 30-minute races on Saturday evening and the second fastest time was used to determine the grid line-up for the second race on Sunday morning. That meant that Al Zubair qualified 16th for the second race, although the times were still provisional pending a review of certain other drivers’ lap times by race officials.
“It was a double-header qualifying session this morning and I think my pace was alright for my first time here in dry conditions,” said FZ Racing’s Al Faisal. “I was blocked by another driver on two of my laps and that did not help my qualifying. I know I have a lot more pace than that and I will have to push in the race.
“It is not an easy circuit. It is very challenging. I need to get my head down and try and finish in the points.”
The majority of the 31 drivers opted to go out on to the circuit late in the 30-minute qualifying session to avoid slightly damp conditions on slick tyres. Frenchman Steven Palette set the early target time of 2min 36.791sec on his second lap, as Al Zubair also got some early time out on the empty course and carded a 2min 30.951sec starter. He improved soon afterwards with a tour of 2min 29.649sec to remain in an early second place behind Palette.
Dennis Olsen holds second place in the championship standings behind Al Zubair’s team-mate Ammermüller and he stormed to the top of the timings with a lap of 2min 27.323sec, but the lap time was cancelled and Mattia Drudi moved in front with a 2min 27.437sec tour.
Olsen bounced back with a 2min 25.078sec lap to hit the front with 13min 40sec of the session remaining. Al Zubair held ninth with a best lap of 2min 28.195sec with 11 minutes to run.
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