Sainteloc on Pole for 24H Dubai

Sainteloc Racing beat Leipert Motorsport to secure pole position for the 19th running of the Hankook 24H Dubai.

The No. 18 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, driven by Michael Doppelmayr, Pierre Kaffer, Elia Erhart and Swen Herberger, recorded a combined lap time of 1:59.807 to beat the No. 63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 by 0.067 seconds.

The German-flagged Lamborghini, headlined by factory driver Marco Mapelli and co-driven by Gabriele Rindone, Brendon Leitch and Alban Varutti, slotted into second despite the Audi battling a late steering issue.

It marks a return to pole position for Audi after a one-year absence after Al Manar Racing by HRT topped qualifying in 2023. Before then, Team WRT was on pole for its last edition of the event running Ingolstadt machinery before it switched to BMW.

HAAS RT ensured Audi was represented twice in the top three, with the No. 21 machine of Stanislav Minsky, Thomas Kiefer, Torsten Kratz, Mathieu Detry and Miika Panu lining up third.

The Belgian-based, Antiguan-flagged squad will be joined on the second row by the No. 4 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Anthony Bartone, Al Faisal Al Zubair, Dominik Baumann, Martin Konrad and Fabian Schiller.

Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors completed the top five with their No. 95 Porsche 911 GT3 R, ahead of the No. 54 Eastalent Racing Team Audi spearheaded by Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock and Gilles Magnus.

In the GT4 category, a last-gap effort from Cameron Mcleod secured pole position for AGMC Racing Team by Simpson Motorsport.

Mcleod, who shares the No. 438 BMW M4 GT4 with Fabian Duffieux, Ivan Krapivtsev, Hugo Cook and Detry, who is pulling double duty by also driving the No. 21 HAAS RT Audi, reeled off a late lap of 2:10.149 in the closing stages of the third and final session.

This gave the team an advantage of 0.040 seconds in the combined time over the No. 496 Continental Racing by TTR Toyota GR Supra GT4 of Vasily Vladykin, Andrey Solukovtsev, David Pogosyan and Mikhail Loboda.

The No. 429 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 of David Holloway, Piers Johnson, Nicholas Halstead and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt completed the three-car class.

The 19th running of the Hankook 24H Dubai kicks off Saturday at 1 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) with live coverage on the 24H Series YouTube channel.