WRT Maintains 24H Dubai Lead After Six Hours

Al Manar Racing by Team WRT led the Michelin 24H Dubai after six hours of racing were completed, with the Belgian squad engaged in a strategic battle with Dinamic GT and Pure Rxcing.

Dan Harper, piloting the No. 777 BMW M4 GT3, pitted at the six-hour mark to hand over to Darren Leung with the race under Code 60 for a crash involving the No. 414 Razoon More Than Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS at Turn 1o.

Dominik Olbert went straight on at the end of the back straight, failing to slow down and making heavy contact with the barriers. He was able to exit the car under his own power.

WRT led the race at the end of the opening hour, but dropped back somewhat through the combination of serving Bronze time for Darren Leung and a penalty for the latter for overtaking under Code 60.

That then allowed the No. 88 Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 to make its way to the front, thanks to a charging stint from Dustin Blattner that saw the American racer take the lead.

However, a spin saw Blattner then drop first place to the Dinamic GT Porsche, after which a damper failure effectively eliminated the No. 88 car from contention.

That saw the Dinamic GT and Pure Rxcing then briefly move into a 1-2 formation for Porsche, before a Code 60 for a stopped Scuderia Praha Ferrari allowed Team WRT to make a well-timed stop under caution and jump up the order.

As pits strategies diverged, the No. 24 Dinamic Porsche captured the lead with Loek Hartog at the wheel, with the Dutchman coming under pressure from Harper in second.

The BMW factory driver had closed the gap to under a second when Hartog pitted with 20 minutes remaining in the hour, allowing Harper to lead into the six-hour mark.

Alexey Nesov sat in second aboard the No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche, ahead of the third-placed No. 991  Paradine Competition BMW that was also due to come in under Code 60.

Klaus Bachler, newly installed into the No. 24 Dinamic Porsche, sat in fourth ahead of a pair of Herberth Motorsport entries piloted by Robert Renauer and Kevin Tse.

The GT4 class was led by the No. 495 Team CMR Ginetta GT4 EVO, while Leipert Motorsport maintained the lead in GTX with its Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2.

The first six hours of the contest were interrupted by six Code 60 interventions, with two of them for a pair of significant incidents.

First, Kiwamu Katayama heavily crashed the No. 990 JBR Porsche 992 GT3 Cup exiting the final corner, which caused the race’s first Code 60.

After the race was then resumed, the No. 5 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo made heavy contact with the wall after swerving to avoid the No. 81 Era Motorsport Ferrari, which was slow on track with a stuck pit speed limiter.