MUSCAT: Oman’s Al Faisal bin Khalid al Zubair, Austrian Dominik Baumann and Canadian Mikael Grenier got their campaign for honours in the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup off to an excellent start with second place in the Gold Cup category at the opening race at the Paul Ricard circuit in France on Sunday.
The trio guided the Al Manar Racing by Getspeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to the runner-up spot on the world-famous 5.791km Paul Ricard circuit, sandwiched between the two Audis of Sainteloc Racing and CSA Racing.
Al Faisal said: “It was a positive race weekend in general. We started off with solid practice and pre-qualifying sessions where the car felt quite good. I think it wasn’t the best weekend for the Mercedes. But, nonetheless, it was a solid result. We started qualifying with pole in our Gold class and beat some of the Pro guys as well. We were P15 overall.
“I started the race for the first hour and came back into the pits after a good stint. We were still leading the class. Dominik, my team-mate, went into the car for the second stint. Unfortunately, he struggled a bit with the tyre management and we went back to third place. Luckily, in the third stint, Mikael had a very strong session and he took us back to second place. For sure, we are happy with second place and pole position in terms of points for the championship but I think the win was there for us this weekend. I think we just keep this momentum up for the next one in this championship, which is Spa 24, the biggest race of the year.”
Al Zubair took the wheel for the opening stint of the three-hour race and delivered a solid performance that saw him stay well ahead of his Gold Cup rivals and move up a couple of places in the overall classification. Despite a full course yellow after around 40 minutes of his time at the wheel of the Mercedes, the Omani was well clear of Evrard in the Saintéloc Racing Audi.
Baumann took over for the second stint under a full course yellow and maintained the team’s advantage for a time before slipping behind Sainteloc Racing’s Jim Pla and coming under pressure from Adam Eteki in the CSA Racing Audi.
After the final driver change, Grenier held third place behind Gilles Magnus in the Sainteloc Racing Audi and Arthur Rougier in the CSA Racing machine. Magnus held on to earn the first victory of the season for Saintéloc Racing but Grenier passed Rougier late on to wrap up a first podium of the season for Al Manar Racing by Getspeed with second place.
The compact weekend’s action for the Gold competitors began with a free practice session on Saturday morning. The Al Manar Racing by Getspeed crew made an inauspicious start to their weekend’s campaign and were classified down in third of the Gold Cup crews with a best lap of 1min 54.696sec.
The early bragging rights went to the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes crew of Martin Kodric, Isa al Khalifa and Lewis Williamson, who are making their debut in the series this weekend. They posted a lap of 1min 54.026sec to finish just behind the Silver Cup Getspeed crew of Lucas Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Jules Gounon. Sainteloc Racing’s Gilles Magnus, Jim Pla and Paul Evrard were second of the Gold Cup teams in their Audi R8 LMS GT3.
The Al Manar Racing by Getspeed Mercedes then topped the Gold Cup times in the afternoon’s pre-qualifying session that preceded the three qualifying stints on Sunday morning.
CSA Racing’s Arthur Rougier was the quickest of the Gold Cup runners in Q1 and a lap of 1min 54.113sec enabled the Audi team to gain the early advantage. Gilles Magnus came home second and Al Zubair put the Al Manar Racing by Getspeed Mercedes in third.
Baumann took the wheel in Q2 and headed the Gold runners with a best lap of 1min 53.694sec during his five laps. That put the Austrian well ahead of Sainteloc Racing’s Jim Pla and, with the two sessions combined, Al Manar Racing topped the standings with Grenier rounding off the stint in Q3.
The Canadian didn’t disappoint and he topped the Gold category times with a lap of 1min 53.425sec with Lewis Williamson of 2 Seas Motorsport coming home in second. That put the Al Manar Racing by Getspeed Mercedes ahead of their Gold Cup rivals with Sainteloc Racing in second and CSA Racing in third.
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