Photo: Creventic/24H Series
MS7 by WRT will start the Hankook 24H Dubai from overall pole following a frantic three-stage qualifying session for the 24H Series season opener.
Dries Vanthoor, Christopher Mies and Thomas Neubauer combined for a best three-lap average of 1:58.684 in the Team WRT-run Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.
It was 0.294 seconds quicker than the No. 4 Abu Dhabi Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello, Manuel Metzger and Hubert Haupt, which will start second overall and in outright GT3 class.
A late flyer by Mercedes-AMG factory driver Luca Stolz in Q3 saw the No. 777 Al Manar Racing by HRT entry jump to third, ahead of the No. 92 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, featuring a largely Australian-crewed entry, with the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche completing the top-five.
Q3 was halted due to an accident from the No. 701 Vortex V8 entry of Lionel Amrouche with five minutes remaining, which stopped the clock and set up a shootout to the finish that saw minimal improvements up front.
Vanthoor, Mies and Neubauer will share their Audi with Mohammed Saud Fahad Al Saud and late addition Axcil Jefferies in tomorrow’s race.
GT3 Pro-Am class pole honors went to the No. 19 MP Motorsport Mercedes of Henk and Daniel de Jong Bert de Heus and Jaap van Lagen while the CP Racing Mercedes of Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster, Shane Lewis and late addition Philip Quaife will start from GT3-Am pole.
Team GP-Elite picked up 992 Pro class pole with its all-Dutch lineup of Larry ten Voorde, Thierry Vermeulen, Roger Hodenius and Steven van Rhee in the No. 933 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, with the GTX pole going to the No. 710 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo of Gerhard Watzinger, Gregg Gorski, Erik Davis, Alban Varutti and Fidel Leib.
Prosport Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck, Guido Dumarey, Hugo Sasse and Mike David Ortmann edged out The Heart of Racing’s Aston at the last minute to take the GT4 class pole, meanwhile.
Top qualifying honors in TCE went to the No. 202 Les Deux Arbres Ligier JS2 R of Steve Zacchia, Antoine Lepesqueux and and late addition Christophe Bouchut, who set the quickest time in the session.
They will be joined by Patrick Zacchia and team boss Jack Leconte in the race.
The No. 202 entry edged out the fellow TCX class No. 222 Lamera GT despite sustaining wheel damage after contact with the No. 116 Autorama Motorsport by WolfPower Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR of Rob Huff in the closing stages of Q3.
The Hankook 24H Dubai gets underway Friday at 3 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) with live coverage on the 24H Series’ YouTube page.
RESULTS: Qualifying (GT) / Qualifying (TCE)
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