Dubai: Only seven instead of 24 hours of racing
FLOODING Heavy rain caused the 24 Hours of Dubai to be abandoned after seven hours. At this point, the Mercedes of Black Falcon and the Swiss Manuel Metzger was in the lead. After it had still been dry in the first hours under cloudy skies in the Arab Emirate, the onset and heavier rain led after a little more [...]
After it had been dry for the first few hours under cloudy skies in the Arab Emirate, the onset and intensification of rain led to an interruption after just over seven hours and 168 laps completed by the front runners.
The rain continued during the night, affecting not only the infrastructure of Dubai Autodrome, but also the city of Dubai and the rest of the Emirates. After a thorough analysis of the situation, it was decided at 7 a.m. by mutual agreement between the race organizers, Dubai Autodrome and organizer Creventic not to resume the race for safety reasons.
Lucky and perfect strategy of the record winners
At the time of the stop, Black Falcon's 2016 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was in the lead. The German team took the decisive step towards success when, after around five hours of driving, they and their driver Hubert Haupt decided to stay on slicks in contrast to the competition as the rain became heavier once again.
With the track drying again, the former DTM driver then took the lead because, unlike the rivals ahead of him, he didn't need an extra pit stop. Together with Khaled Al Qubaisi (UAE), Ben Barker (GB), Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL) and Haupt, the German Manuel Metzger, who is based in Frauenfeld and competes with an ASS license, came home triumphant.
For the Swiss by choice and the Briton, who already won the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours with Black Falcon, it is the first victory at the New Year's classic, and for their three teammates it is already the third. With five overall victories in 15 events, their team is now the sole record holder.
Overall ranks 5 and 6 for Lucerne drivers
The other podium places overall went to the Audi customer sports teams of Car Collection and MS7 by WRT. In the early stages, Rolf Ineichen in the second WRT Audi was in the lead on lap 4 and on lap 37. Ineichen and his brother Mark as well as factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde eventually finished fifth.
The Lamborghini Huracán of Barwell Motorsport with Adrian Amstutz from Lucerne was first in the lead with works driver Dennis Lind from the 41st to the 81st and then with Finn Patrik Kujala from the 107th to the 123rd lap, before the Mercedes of Black Falcon took over the first place due to the different strategy.
This was the twelfth and, due to the stop, last lead change among nine different GT3 teams. When the red flag went out, the British Lambo was in sixth position.
Podium for the Ticino...
In the GT3-AM class, the Swiss Ivan Jacoma, Maurizio Calamia and Stefano Monaco finished a happy third with the Italo-Swiss Roberto Pampanini and the Dane Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen. At the break, they were already three laps behind the class winners with a Mercedes in their Porsche 911 GT3 R, but they were 32 and 56 seconds ahead of their pursuers, respectively, in the desired podium position.
... and Autorama Motorsport
Also coming in third was Autorama Motorsport with one of the two VW Golf GTI TCRs in the touring car field. The drivers included Miklas Born from Basel, who is only 17 years old, and defending champion Yannick Mettler.
We will talk about the race of the two Swiss TCR teams in a later report.
