Eastalent Audi in Charge at 24H Dubai Halfway Mark

Eastalent Racing led the Hankook 24H Dubai with half of the race completed, running ahead of Proton Huber Competition and GetSpeed Performance.

The No. 54 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, piloted by Christopher Haase, Simon Reicher, Markus Winkelhock, Mike Zhou and Gilles Magnus, held a lead of 11.796 seconds over the No. 86 Porsche 911 GT3 R after 292 laps of racing were completed.

That Porsche, spearheaded by Sven Mueller and co-driven by Rinat Salikhov, Sergei Borisov and Victor Shaytar, led after three hours after it had initially overaken the No. 9 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo through traffic earlier on.

GetSpeed moved into the lead of the race in the opening exchanges thanks to a strong opening performance from Mercedes-AMG factory driver Fabian Schiller, but both cars were leapfrogged by Eastalent when the German squad opted not to pit under a Code 60.

That interruption, triggered by a stoppage for a TCX-class runner, was one of nine Code 60’s that appeared through the opening half of the contest.

Most notably, the race was neutralized for over 30 minutes when barrier repairs were required at Turn 9 after an impact by the No. 927 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 992 GT3 Cup approaching three hours.

At the halfway mark, the No. 54 Audi led from the No. 86 Porsche, with the No. 9 Mercedes-AMG completing the top three ahead of Century Motorsport and Attempto Racing.

Several major GT3 squads fell by the wayside through the first twelve hours, with the top two cars from qualifying both capitulating.

Sainteloc Racing’s No. 18 Audi, which took pole on Friday, has been in and out of the garage with various issues, while the No. 63 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was withdrawn without completing a single lap due to a fuel leak.

Notably, 2023 runners-up Herberth Motorsport lost significant time when the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R hit the barriers at Turn 1, while Hankook 12H Kuwait winners CP Racing suffered a transmission failure approaching the halfway point.

In the GT4 class, the lead was held by the No. 496 Continental Racing by TTR Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo driven by Vasily Vladykin, Andrey Solukovtsev, David Pogosyan and Mikhail Loboda.

The Emirati squad ran 41.014 seconds ahead of the No. 438 AGMC Racing Team by Simpson Motorsport BMW M4 GT4, which started from pole position with Fabian Duffieux, Mathieu Detry, Ivan Krapivtsev, Hugo Cook and Cameron Mcleod at the wheel.