Paradine BMW Leads After Six Hours in Dubai

James Kellett was effectively the leader of the Michelin 24H Dubai in the No. 991 Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 EVO as the race reached one-quarter’s distance during a Code 60 period.

The order was significantly shuffled during the second hour when a Code 60 to recover the stranded Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from the pit straight coincided with the conclusion of the first round of stops.

Those visiting the pits last were only permitted to undertake limited refuelling and therefore found themselves vaulting up the order.

This meant the No. 777 Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 that had started at the very back of the grid after a turbo overboost penalty during qualifying found itself in the lead for around an hour.

Also enjoying a stint out front was the No. 14 Razoon Porsche 911 GT3 R that had similarly leapt up the leaderboard.

But the true picture then began to become clear in the fourth hour with a trio of BMWs at the head of the order.

The two Paradine Competition BMWs smartly swapped positions with Augusto Farfus moving into the lead in the No. 991 car after Bronze driver Ahmad Al Harthy yielded in the No. 992.

Farfus extended his advantage to around 25 seconds before the next round of stops, while the No. 669 WRT BMW that was in front during the first hour cycled back up to third with Anthony McIntosh at the wheel.

However, things were then shuffled again in the sixth hour when the sixth Code 60 of the race was called while the No. 991 and No. 669 BMWs were in the pits.

Other cars subsequently completed shorter stops and that enabled the No. 2 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and No. 27 WRT BMW to climb into first and second places.

Christopher Haase in the WRT entry made short work of passing Alim Geshev upon the resumption of the race to grab the lead.

All of these cars needed to pit again with Kellett, who had taken over from Farfus, the last to stop – his visit to the pitlane coinciding with the seventh Code 60 period as the clock neared six hours.

He therefore remerged still in the lead with many of the other leading GT3 contenders also heading to the pits.

When the brief Code 60 ended – once errant debris was retrieved – Kellett’s advantage stood at around a minute over Haase, but the Briton once again took on limited fuel.

Geshev retained third while Darren Leung in the second Paradine BMW was fourth ahead of the No. 669 WRT BMW. The top six was rounded out by the Razoon Porsche.

Further back, there was disappointment for many of the fans at the Dubai Autodrome when the No. 93 Ajith RedAnt Racing Mercedes-AMG erupted into flames in the third hour.

This was before famous actor Ajith Kumar had got behind the wheel, someone who has helped to shine a spotlight on the event.

Elsewhere, Red Ant Racing had moved into the lead of the 992 class from the pole-sitting No. 909 Red Camel-Jordans.nl machine.

Meanwhile, the Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT2 had usurped the GTX lead from the Rossa LM GT, but the GT4 class continued to be headed by the No. 445 Cerny Motorsport BMW M4.