Black Falcon Loses Second Position on Grid

Photo: Creventic

Black Falcon has received a three-position grid penalty ahead of the Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai, dropping its No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 from second to fifth and promoting Herberth Motorsport to a front-row start.

The penalty was given because of a new regulation that requires all drivers to complete at least two timed laps in Free Practice and/or Qualifying, so that every driver has two laps’ experience before Night Practice.

The car is driven by Khaled Al Qubaisi, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Manuel Metzger, Hubert Haupt and Ben Barker.

Only Bleekemolen, Metzger and Barker drove in Free Practice, with Bleekemolen going on to qualifying, meaning Haupt and Al Qubaisi did not drive until Night Practice.

The team will now start from fifth position, while Herberth’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, shared by Sven Mueller, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer and Ralf Bohn, takes up second position on the grid.

The second row will be occupied by HTP Winward Motorsport and MS7 by WRT.

Toksport WRT will still start from pole with its Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Philip Ellis, Patrick Assenheimer and Martin Konrad.

The race gets underway at 3 p.m. local time (6 a.m. EST / 11 a.m. GMT). Weather conditions are currently dry, although some damp patches remain on the track. 

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.