ABU DHABI: Oman’s Al Faisal al Zubair teams up with German professional drivers, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller, to tackle the Gulf 12 Hours in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by Al-Manar Racing by GetSpeed.
Absent from the international racing scene since finishing fourth in the Silver Cup category of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS – Endurance Cup with Schiller and Zimbabwe’s Axcil Jeffries, Al Zubair is relishing the prospect of challenging for overall honours in the race at the 5.281km Yas Marina circuit, which has attracted a full grid of 34 GT endurance cars and drivers from 25 nations.
Al Zubair said: “I am extremely excited to be racing at the Gulf 12 again. This will be a very difficult race, as it has joined the Intercontinental GT Challenge. Whereas, as usual, it is about 10 cars, this year there are over 30 cars confirmed. That will be tough and the entry includes nine more Pro cars and factory cars from Mercedes, Ferrari and Audi.
“It will definitely not be easy to get a great result. But I believe we have a great package, a great engineer and top team-mates. Hopefully, we can get the results to prove that. I am looking forward to getting back in the car and having a good result at the end of the 12 hours.”
Back in January, the Omani finished fifth at the Hankook 24Hr Dubai with Dutchman Indy Dontje, Stolz and Austrian Martin Konrad.
Competition in the GT3 Pro category is intense and comes from the likes of the AF Corse MDK Motorsport Ferrari 488GT3 of Formula 1 ace Kevin Magnussen, alongside his father Jan and Mark Kvamme, as well as 24 Hours of Spa winners, Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello, in one of two Mercedes-AMG GT3s entered by AMG Team GruppeM Racing.
The Gulf 12 Hours event was first held at the iconic Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix circuit back in January 2012, with 10 editions run to date, in addition to a special race in Bahrain in January 2021.
The weekend’s action gets underway with open practice on Friday (December 9), followed by two free practice and four qualifying sessions on Saturday and the race on Sunday, starting at 10.00hrs. This will be the first continuous 12-hour race without a break after six hours.
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