24H Dubai: Swiss in waiting position 🎥
GOOD START The Mercedes-AMG driven by Philip Ellis from Zug started from pole position at the Dubai 24 Hours. Autorama Motorsport had to take two night shifts due to training accidents. The 15th edition of the 24 Hours of Dubai got underway at 3 p.m. local time (12 p.m. Swiss time) on Friday. The pole position was captured by the German Maro Engel with [...]
The 15th edition of the 24 Hours of Dubai got underway on Friday at 3 p.m. local time (12 p.m. Swiss time). The pole position was captured by German Maro Engel in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. With him on the Toksport-WRT car is Philip Ellis, who started under the British flag and with a Swiss license and who grew up and resides in the canton of Zug.
In addition, a second Mercedes-AMG GT3 customer sports car from last year's winning Black Falcon team should have set off. One of the drivers, German Manuel Metzger, who lives in Frauenfeld, is another Swiss by choice. In the starting grid, this team was subsequently moved to P5. This meant that the Herberth Motorsport team, which started without Daniel Allemann, was in second position with its Porsche.
Enormous power density
Only fractions of a second separated the best in the premier GT3 class. With more than 50 cars on the road, a clear lap was a matter of pure luck for some.
Therefore, the Audi R8 LMS lurking in seventh position with the brothers Rolf and Mark Ineichen as well as the factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde can also be counted among the narrow circle of favorites.
The Lamborghini with Adrian Amstutz from Lucerne started the first endurance race of the still young year from somewhat further back (14th).
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The short video shows impressions from the training days.
Ivan Jacoma, Mauro Calamia, Stefano Monaco and Mauro Pampanini were aiming for a podium in the GT3-AM class. Their new Porsche 911 GT3 R was on the eighth row of the grid and 6th in class.
Two accidents at Autorama Motorsport
There was an excessive amount of work for Autorama Motorsport on the practice days and the two following nights. Both VW Golf GTI TCR were innocent victims of collisions with careless competitors - the "world champion car" with starting number 1 even only in the night practice following the qualifying!
Therefore, the Wolf-Power Racing supported team from Wetzikon had to take a night shift from Wednesday to Thursday as well as from Thursday to Friday for repairs.
The fact that the cars could start from grid positions 3 and 8 in the TCR class is already a race won against time. Yannick Mettler will support the team on both cars.
So far, practice and qualifying have gone smoothly for the second Swiss team TOPCAR sport with Fabian Danz, Ronny Jost and the Finns Buri and Laaksonen. The Bernese team prioritized a perfect set-up of the Cupra TCR for the race, which they started from fourth position in the strongly contested TCR class.
The starting position of the Swiss in the equally strong GT4 class looks good. Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport qualified its two BMW M4s for grid positions 2 and 8 (with Michael and Martin Kroll). The new Audi R8 GT4 Evo 2020 with Rahel Frey was placed in between.
Live on the Internet
The first 24-hour race of the year concludes on Saturday, January 11, at 12 noon Swiss time. It can be viewed in full length in the Livestream and in the Livetiming be followed via the homepage of the event series.
There are also regular updates on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (24H Series).
