The first round of the UAE GT Championship kicked off at the Dubai Autodrome over the weekend, and the rather excellent Pete West was there to cover it with his camera. So we present some highlights, as well as shots from the UAE Touring Car Championship and the UAE Sportbike Championship. Enjoy!
The GT line up included three Porsche cup cars, but two – including this one belonging to Ibrahim Salloum and Cabell Fisher – sadly failed to finish.
Newcomers Hannes Waimer and Armin Schmidt also failed to finish in their Porsche.
Frederic Fatien and Fabien Giroix brought their Lamborghini Gallardo to the party, and managed to finish second…
…but another Italian car won the race. The Ferrari 458 GT3 of Rob Barff and Leon Price took the overall and GTA class win.
Barff dedicated the win to his friend Dan Wheldon, who had died in an Indycar crash in Las Vegas the previous weekend.
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There was a much bigger field in round 2 of the UAE Touring Car Championship, which also featured the Renault Clio Cup.
The races proved controversial; The SEAT Supercopa of Mohammed Al Owais crossed the line first in race one, but he was dropped to fifth by the stewards for having an underweight car, leaving Nader Zuhour (above) as the victor.
Al Owais (above) tried to recover in race two, but was forced to retire after eight laps. Ramzi Moutran was the winner.