Hard-earned top six spot for Al Harthy in Paul Ricard

• Sixth place finish retrieved in challenging first race of Endurance Cup

• Blue riband 24-hour at Spa in Belgium next for Endurance Cup in June

PAUL RICARD, France: Circuit Paul Ricard provided a mixed opening race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season for OQ by Oman Racing on April 7, with Ahmad al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann ultimately happy to post a sixth place finish.

Marking the Omani’s welcome return to GTWCE, his first outing in the category for a couple of years, Al Harthy wanted to get as many points on the board as possible to get the 2024 Bronze class bid off to the best possible start – his first outing in GTWCE driving a BMW M4 GT3 prepared by Team WRT.

Battling hard through an opening hour peppered with Safety Cars and Full Course Yellow periods, Al Harthy – who started sixth in Bronze – kept the OQ, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Omantel and BMW Oman livered car in contention by concluding his stint in a strong fourth place.

Unfortunately, a track limits penalty in the second hour for team-mate De Haan dropped the squad well outside the top 10, but an impressive conclusion to the race from Klingmann ensured the trio took away sixth position in Bronze.

MIXED FORTUNES

Al Harthy’s first track time of the week came on April 5, in the Bronze test session and he concluded a very positive beginning to the event with the No 30 car ending up fourth fastest. During the subsequent free practice and pre-qualifying sessions on April 6, the OQ by Oman Racing squad ended eighth and ninth in class respectively.

In Sunday morning’s final qualifying, split over three separate 15-minute sessions, Klingmann ran in Q1 while Al Harthy contested Q2 and De Haan Q3. On combined times across the three periods, the trio ended with an average best of 1m54.410 seconds to secure sixth on the grid in Bronze.

The Omani took the opening stint of the three-hour race and although slipping to seventh in class on a very busy first lap, he set about climbing up the order following an early Safety Car period on lap five and a second Safety Car intervention just a few laps later.

Moving back into sixth in Bronze, Al Harthy began to pick up his pace as the frantic action steadied more and he reeled in the group of cars ahead into the second half hour of action – closing down a 1.5 seconds gap to just a few tenths. Following a Full Course Yellow cautionary period between laps 17 and 20 the Omani driver pressed on, and on lap 22 he moved up into fifth in class.

Right with the No 991 BMW, Al Harthy swarmed and made quick work of passing for fourth in Bronze on lap 24. Another FCY period was required the next time around and with the end of the first hour approaching, the vast majority of cars headed to pit lane for the initial round of stops.

Completing a strong stint, particularly the second half hour, Al Harthy handed over the No 30 BMW to De Haan. Racing resumed with around one hour and 48 minutes to go, De Haan fourth in class, and he soon climbed into third before being edged back a position again by the No 991 BMW.

Still fourth at the midway point of the race, De Haan was then shuffled to ninth and when the encounter reached the end of the second hour he was sixth with pit-stops already being taken by some rivals. Klingmann entered the race with an unenviable task as, after the penalty from the previous stint, he threaded into the action 13th in class.

Doing all he could to gain as much time back as possible, the German had moved back towards the top 10 during the first half of his stint and with a quarter of an hour to go he was in ninth. Gaining three more places before the chequered flag, Klingmann took sixth position to cap a strong drive.

Ahmad Al Harthy:

“My stint was really good, I was pretty happy with where we were – with a very tough start it was important to keep the car clean and safe. Our pace was good, but it was just impeded with Safety Cars and a lot of traffic, and Full Course Yellows. Other than that I was really happy with my performance after a few years away from this very competitive championship with a huge grid.

“Giving the car in P4 to Sam was great and I was happy with that. Unfortunately we had a track limits infringement, which led to a 30 second penalty – from when Sam was in the car. For sure, Jens drove brilliantly and we got the car back into contention. Other cars had penalties too so, in the end, I think P6 was the best we could do and brings us some points as well.”

Round two of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup is the blue riband event of the season, the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa on 29th/30th June at the renowned Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Al Harthy, though, will be back in race action just a fortnight from now – reuniting with FIA WEC team-mates Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi – as part of the second event of the FIA World Endurance Championship campaign, on April 20-21at Imola in Italy.

2024 GTWCE Endurance Cup Bronze Driver Standings (after Rd1)

6th Ahmad Al Harthy / Sam De Haan / Jens Klingmann, 8pts

2024 GTWCE Endurance Cup Bronze Team Standings (after Rd1)

6th OQ by Oman Racing, 8pts