WRT in Command of 24H Dubai With Six Hours to Go

Al Manar Racing by Team WRT led the 20th running of the Michelin 24H Dubai with six hours to go, which saw Pure Rxcing largely eliminated from race contention due to a puncture and featured a dramatic lead change in the GT4 class.

Max Hesse, at the wheel of the No. 777 BMW M4 GT3 Evo, sat a lap clear of both the No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Thomas Preining and Thomas Kiefer’s No. 24 Dinamic GT machine in third.

However, the No. 24 car had just pitted under a Code 60, which was triggered by the No. 69 Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II grinding to a halt on track.

Pure Rxcing, which had remained in contention for victory, suffered a significant setback when the No. 92 Porsche encountered a left front puncture with Harry King at the wheel.

That cost the team five minutes, dropping it over a lap off the lead of the race.

Meanwhile, Optimum Motorsport saw any hopes of a strong result dashed when the No. 33 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo was struck by a rear control arm failure whilst running in fifth place.

Comtoyou Racing’s sole remaining Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo has lost 18 laps as the result of a collision with the No. 710 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, which resulted in steering damage for the No. 40 car.

The German squad, meanwhile, remained in the lead in the GTX class with Gerhard Watzinger 26 laps clear of the No. 111 IRC GT that ran second in class.

In GT4, the lead of race changed hands in a dramatic way after a fire eliminated the No. 495 Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT4 EVO that largely dominated the class up until that point.

The car enjoyed a lead of nine laps over the next car in in the category, but caught fire on the exit of Turn 7 with under ten hours to go.

That marked the second time this race that a GT4 contender fell victim to a fire, with WS Racing’s BMW M4 GT4 suffering a similar fate in hour eight.

As a result, the No. 438 AGMC Racing by Simpson Motorsport led the class at sunrise, with a lead of several laps over the No. 427 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS.