Cairoli Out Front in Frantic Opening Hour at Dubai

Photo: Dinamic Motorsport

The No. 67 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matteo Cairoli leads the Hankook 24H Dubai following a frantic opening hour of the race that featured two Code 60s and multiple pit dramas.

Cairoli, who is yet to make a stop, holds a narrow one-second lead over the No. 92 Herberth Motorsport Porsche of Sven Mueller, with Marvin Dienst in the sister No. 54 Dinamic Porsche running third overall.

The pole-sitting No. 7 MS7 by WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Christopher Mies led the opening laps until pitting while under the race’s first Code 60 due to contact between a KTM X-Bow and the No. 961 Fach Auto Tech Porsche Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

A second Code 60 for debris at the 45-minute mark led to the majority of the leaders dashing to the pits for service, including the then-leading No. 4 Abu Dhabi Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello.

Marciello, however, was held up at the fuel station and ultimately ended up abandoning his refueling stop due to a large queue, dropping down the running order as a result.

The No. 710 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo leads GTX while the No. 924 Huber Motorsport Porsche is the leading 992 class entry, albeit in the 992-Am class.

GT4 is currently being paced by the class pole-sitting No. 67 Prosport Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

A total of 79 cars took the green flag in the 24H Series season-opener.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John