Dubai Thursday Notebook

***Track action on Thursday at the Hankook 24H Dubai consisted of a pair of private test sessions, each two and a half hours in length with one in the morning and early afternoon and the second running into the afternoon dusk. Frederic Vervisch set the fastest time of the day during the morning session, reeling off a 1:58.583 in the No. 21 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. RESULTS: Private Test 1/Private Test 2

***The two sessions went by with few major incidents, except for an early red flag in session two caused by a crash for the No. 488 Dragon Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Leonidas Loucas, Rhea Loucas, Bradley Ellis and Charles Hollings. The car returned to the paddock on a truck with significant front-end damage.

***Track action for the event unofficially started on Tuesday with no fewer than four two-hour Track Day sessions, during which Formula 1 star Lando Norris was present in the paddock. The McLaren driver is a longtime fan of Valentino Rossi, who makes his 24H Dubai debut this weekend with Team WRT.

***Since its inception in 2006, the event has never been won by a non-German manufacturer. Porsche holds the record with six victories (2008-2010, 2014, 2017, 2021) followed by Mercedes with five and BMW and defending winners Audi with three wins each.

***The odds of this statistic changing in this year’s running of the race are very small. Just two non-German GT3 entries, one each from Ferrari and McLaren, are going up against a combined 18 cars from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche.

***The Dubai enduro runs on Saturday and Sunday for the first time this year. This is a change compared to previous years, when the race was run on Friday and Saturday in line with local weekend customs. When the United Arab Emirates changed its weekend to Saturday and Sunday for 2022, the change came too late to be implemented for last year’s event, which still saw the race start on Friday.

***A handful of driver changes were made to the entry list in recent days. LMP3 driver Dino Lunardi has been added to the lineup for the No. 2 Visiom Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, while Sainteloc Junior Team has added French GT4 racer Gregoire Demoustier to the No. 26 Audi.

***Notably, the No. 777 Al Manar Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo is now manned by a four-man crew, as Al Faisal Al Zubair’s name is no longer listed alongside Martin Konrad, Axcil Jefferies, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller. A team spokesperson told Sportscar365 that Al Zubair is unable to race due to health reasons.

***Alex Riberas has also been removed from the No. 27 Heart of Racing by SPS Mercedes in favor of Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn. “Alex had to do some stuff in Spain and we ran out of time to do that before the Roar Before the 24, so we brought Ross in,” team principal Ian James told Sportscar365. “Aston Martin gratefully agreed to let him do this race.”

***Phil Quaife returns to the lineup for the No. 85 CP Racing Mercedes after coming in as a late stand-in for the injured Joe Foster last year. With Foster also back, the American squad’s crew sports five drivers in Quaife, Foster, Shane Lewis, Charles Putman and Charles Espenlaub.

***After a one-year absence, the pre-event parade returned as the cars drove on public roads through Dubai Motor City on Wednesday. The event returns to normalcy this year after it was subject to COVID-19 restrictions in previous years.

***The 991 class, which featured three entries last year, has been disbanded for 2023. It is effectively replaced by the 992 class that made its debut in 2022. The change brings the total number of classes down from ten to nine. Teams can still enter the 991 GT3 Cup in 24H Series events, but will now be placed into the GTX class instead.

***Three championships feature on the support package for the event: the F4 UAE Championship, Formula Regional Middle East Championship and Clio Cup Middle East. While no drivers are pulling double duty, the F4 field features Jakob Bergmeister, nephew of former Porsche factory driver Joerg Bergmeister, Rubens Barrichello’s son Fernando and Nicola Lacorte, the son of Cetilar Racing’s Roberto Lacorte. IMSA podium finisher Sebastian Montoya is with Prema in the Formula Regional series.

***Two teams have cars in multiple series, with GT3 squads MP Motorsport and Sainteloc Racing also fielding several cars in the F4 UAE Championship.

***Official track action starts on Friday with a two-hour Free Practice session starting at 9:20 a.m. local time (1:20 a.m. ET). It will be followed by qualifying at 2 p.m. (4 a.m. ET). and night practice at 6 p.m. (9 a.m. ET). Activity concludes with the newly introduced Night Qualifying session from 7.10 p.m. (10.10 a.m. ET)

***The Night Qualifying session is part of a new qualifying format specifically introduced for this year’s event as an addition to regular qualifying. The grid will be set based on the average times from four sessions: two daytime sessions and the two new sessions under the lights.

***With the exception of the opening Free Practice session, all track action will be streamed live on the 24H Series YouTube channel with commentary from Radio Show Limited. The broadcast team consists of John Hindhaugh, Joe Bradley, Nick Daman, Phil Anson, Bruce Jones and Jonny Palmer.