Al Manar by HRT Secures 24H Dubai Pole

Al Manar Racing by HRT will start the Hankook 24H Dubai from pole position, leading a front row lockout for Haupt Racing Team in a new qualifying format.

The No. 777 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Martin Konrad, Axcil Jefferies, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller set a combined average time of 1:59.791, which was 0.359 seconds faster than the sister No. 4 car piloted by Khaled al Qubaisi, Hubert Haupt, Jules Gounon and Sebastian Baud.

In a new format for this year’s event, qualifying consisted of four sessions split equally between the afternoon and evening.

After the two sessions in the afternoon were completed, the No. 911 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R was quickest on average thanks to fast laps from Alex Malykhin and Harry King.

However, as the night portion of qualifying commenced, the battle for pole quickly developed into a duel between the pair of HRT cars as Stolz and Gounon battled for the top spot in session three.

Stolz marginally bested his fellow factory driver by just over a tenth, leaving the way clear for Schiller to secure pole position in the final 15-minute session under the lights at Dubai Autodrome.

Schiller’s flying lap of 1:59.340 compared favorably to the 2:00.362 set by Baud, meaning the Bilstein-liveried No. 4 Mercedes could not threaten the top spot.

The No. 911 Porsche of Malykhin, King, Sven Mueller and Joel Sturm completed the top three, with defending race winners Team WRT fourth with the No. 7 BMW M4 GT3 for Mohammed Al Saud, Diego Menchaca, Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, Jens Klingmann and Dries Vanthoor.

Grove Racing will start the race from fifth position, ahead of the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

Roman de Angelis, Ian James, Gray Newell and Ross Gunn qualified seventh for Heart of Racing by SPS, taking GT3 Pro/Am pole with the No. 27 Mercedes.

The overall top ten was rounded out by the No. 46 Team WRT BMW, Team GP-Elite and the No. 2 Visiom Ferrari 488 GT3.

The No. 76 7TSIX McLaren 720S GT3 of James Cottingham, Fran Rueda, Andrew Gilbert and Matus Vyboh beat defending winners CP Racing to pole in GT3 Am.

Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors picked up 992 class pole with the No. 955 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup, while GTX went the way of the No. 714 Razoon – More Than Racing KTM X-Bow GTX.

GT4 pole position went to the No. 408 ROFGO with Dragon Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Roald Goethe, Oliver Goethe, Benjamin Goethe and Stuart Hall.

The family effort posted a combined average time of 2:10.411, which gave it a slight advantage of 0.030 seconds over the No. 450 RHC Jorgensen-Strom by Century BMW M4 GT4 of Daren Jorgensen, Brett Strom, Nathan Freke and Jeroen Bleekemolen.

The No. 121 Wolf-Power Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR of Jasmin Preisig, Ivars Vallers, Calle Bergman and Andreas Hoefler took pole in TCR.

The Hankook 24H Dubai starts Saturday at 3 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) with live coverage on the 24H Series’ YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying (GT)/Qualifying (TCE)