Preining: Puncture Cost Pure Rxcing Dubai Win Chance

Thomas Preining lamented the overnight puncture that “kind of ruined everything” for Pure Rxcing and cost the team a shot at victory in the Michelin 24H Dubai.

Preining, Alex Malykhin, Alexey Nesov and Harry King steered the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R to second place in the 20th running of the Middle Eastern enduro, finishing a lap behind winners Al Manar Racing by Team WRT.

After starting from pole position, the Lithuanian squad ran in contention for victory until King suffered a left-front puncture with just under eight and a half hours remaining.

That dropped the No. 92 Porsche down the order and while the team recovered some of the lost ground on pace, with Preining notably posting a new race lap record, it was not enough to stop WRT from taking a third win in four years.

“We just had a puncture in the night, I think at 5 a.m. or something that kind of ruined the race,” Preining told Sportscar365.

“I think we lost almost three laps having to do the shortcut lap which is deleted then and then obviously repairs and everything.

“For sure we could have been in a better position to at least fight for the win and not have to fold the way we did, but in the end we made the most of it.

“After the cards we were dealt in the night and last stint was not so much fun, having to fuel save lots and then obviously having to lose the lap in order to finish at all.

“Very tricky but I’m glad we came home.”

With WRT on course to win, Pure Rxcing was left to battle Dinamic GT for second place, with the No. 92 car appearing to secure the upper hand when the car made its last pitstop under Code 60.

However, Creventic sporting regulations dictate that a car can only take on 25 percent of its allocated fuel amount when it pits under caution.

This meant Preining had to drop his pace significantly in the closing stages in order to save fuel and make it to the finish, with his slowest lap a 2:11.694, well over ten seconds off regular GT3 pace.

This allowed the chasing No. 24 Dinamic GT Porsche to close the gap to just 10.516 seconds at the checkered flag, with Preining also letting himself get lapped by race winner Max Hesse on purpose to ensure he could finish.

“We had to stop on the Code 60,” Preining said.

“We knew this was the only way to get second place, so this was always the plan. Obviously not an easy plan to pull through then, but I’m just glad it all worked out.

“Obviously I’ve been instructed on lap times in order to drop behind the No. 777, so we don’t have to do the extra lap.

“So at some point I had to drive slow and in the end, this is sometimes the only way.”

Preining said he believed that the Porsche and BMW were “pretty similar” in pace throughout the race, although the WRT car enjoyed an advantage through traffic that the Stuttgart marque was unable to match.

“Honestly, I think on pure pace without traffic we generally had the upper hand,” he said

“They just carved through traffic a lot easier. Obviously being able to pass them on the straight which we cannot.

So I think at the end of the day on overall pace it was pretty similar.

“I think on strategy we did a really good race, it’s just the puncture, like I said, that kind of ruined everything.

“But that’s racing. It’s part of it.”