DUBAI // Romolo Liebchen, the head of Audi Sport customer racing, was a proud man Saturday after Audi ended their long wait for a Dubai 24 Hours title with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT’s triumph in the opening leg of the 2016 Hankook 24H Series.
The WRT’s Audi R8 LMS – with Alain Ferte, Michael Meadows, Stuart Leonard and Laurens Vanthoor sharing driving duties – had dropped to 16th in the third hour after starting from third on the grid at the Dubai Autodrome, but they recovered to take the No 1 spot in the 15th hour and did not relinquish as they triumphed after completing 588 laps.
“This is definitely a dream come true because, I am not sure 100 per cent, but I think it was the last big endurance we had yet to win with our GT3 car,” Liebchen said. “Now we have done it and now I think we have won everything.”
Vanthoor, who was driving when the race ended, said: “I didn’t expect the race to be so hard.
“It’s one of the hardest due to all the cars. Sometimes there were some crazy things and it was very difficult, but in the end, we didn’t make any mistakes, we survived and we won the race.”
The Black Falcon team could be pleased too after finishing second in their spare Mercedes SLS chassis after the original went up in flames on Thursday.
The No 16 car started from the back of the 98-car grid, but eventually took the chequered flag, five laps behind the champions, while C ABT Racing, who started from pole, came in third, a farther three laps adrift.
Survival was the biggest task out there and Konrad Motorsport found that out the hard way.
They were in third with just over 20 minutes left on the clock when their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 had a mechanical failure to end their podium hopes.
The Konrad Lamborghini was not the only car forced to retire – 30 of the 98 cars that started the race failed to finish and among them was Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon’s Mercedes-AMG GT3, who were in second when contact lapping a slower car forced them to retire.
“Unfortunately, we have to retire due to an incident with another car while trying to overtake,” said Khalid Al Qubaisi, who was sharing driving duties for the Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon alongside Maro Engel, Hubert Haupt, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Indy Dontje.
Al Qubaisi’s team were forced to retire last year as well, following an incident with a slower car, and the Emirati is hoping for better luck in next year’s race.
“Thankfully, Bleekemolen is OK,” he said. “We were P2 when it happened and could have been leading now.
“Not meant to be. We will try again next year.”
Primus Racing’s Thomas Martinsson was not as fortunate as Bleekemolen after an incident between the Swede’s Ginetta and the then race-leading Scuderia Praha Ferrari.
Martinsson is in hospital with several broken bones, and the organisers of the Hankook 24H Series have decided not to invite Scuderia Praha for the next leg in Italy because of their role in the accident.
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