Dubai: Good starting position for the Swiss 🎥
START TO THE 24H RACE Grasser's Lamborghini Huracan starts from pole position, as it did last year. Two of its drivers are Rolf and Mark Ineichen. Swiss cars also proved their speed in other classes. On his 29th birthday, Mirko Bortolotti scored pole position for the 24 Hours of [...] with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 from GRT Grasser Racing.
On his 29th birthday, Mirko Bortolotti achieved pole position for the 24 Hours of Dubai with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of GRT Grasser Racing. The Lamborghini works driver from Italy already achieved this in the previous year. Also on the car are the Lucerne brothers Rolf and Mark Ineichen and the German Christian Engelhart.
75 cars on 5.4 kilometers
But that doesn't mean we've won anything yet. What counts most in a 24-hour race is consistency. And given the density of the field with 55 GT cars and 20 touring cars on the 5.39-kilometer circuit at the Dubai Autodrome, you also need luck with the many overtaking maneuvers and caution phases.
The second-placed Swiss is Ricardo Feller with an Audi R8 LMS from Mücke Motorsport in fourth place on the grid. Daniel Allemann, winner of the 2017 Dubai 24 Hours with Herberth Motorsport in a Porsche 911 GT3 R, is lurking in twelfth place with his German partners. In terms of general speed, this quartet is also good for victory.
This video shows the highlights of the qualifying:
The fastest time in the Pro-Am class, in which Allemann also competes, was also set by a Lamborghini driver, followed by Dutchman Christiaan Frankenhout in the Hofor Racing Mercedes driven by Michael Kroll, Chantal Prinz-Kroll and her husband Alexander Prinz.
Strong debut of the Hofor-BMW GT4 and the Autorama team
So far, the debut of Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport in GT4 has been brilliant. The new BMW M4 GT4, driven by owner and last year's champion Martin Kroll among others, is in second position behind a Mercedes. In the eleven identical Porsche 991 class, Lucas Mauron from St. Gallen can also hope for a podium in the race after finishing third on the grid.
The second fastest practice time of the twelve TCR touring cars was achieved by Yannick Mettler with the VW Golf GTI of Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing. For the all-Swiss team with Fabian Danz, team boss Stefan Tanner, Jerome Ogay and German Marlon Menden as drivers, basically everything is in the cards. Only an Audi RS3 was faster than Mettler, who mastered the switch from the BMW M4 GT4 (2018 VLN champion) to the front-wheel drive car flawlessly. Behind the Autorama Golf, however, lurk a number of strong and well-balanced teams.
In his own words, Ronny Jost drove Bas Koeten Racing's Cupra TCR "to the death" to at least qualify his car for 14th place on the touring car grid with traction and shifting problems. One of Jost's teammates is Julien Apothéloz. The overall winner of the 2018 Young Driver Challenge will make his endurance debut in Dubai.
Live on the Internet
The 24-hour race, which is being held for the 14th time, ends on Saturday, January 12, at 12 p.m. Swiss time. It can be followed in its entirety on the organizer's livestream on Facebook. There will be regular updates on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (24H Series).
