It was a winning climax to the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship for Emirati driver Khaled Al Qubaisi and his teammates as they came out on top in the LMGTE class.
Bonus
It was a victorious end to the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season for Khaled Al Qubaisi as he was part of the Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing team that won the LMGTE Am category of the 6 Hours of Bahrain race on Saturday evening. The result had the added bonus of ensuring they finished second in the class standings.
Impressive
The victory at the Bahrain International Circuit was all the more impressive because the team, driving a Porsche 911 RSR car, began the race from the back of the grid after suffering technical glitches during qualifying the previous day. But the trio of Al Qubaisi and his teammates David Heinemann Hansson and Patrick Long fought back in the race.
Second victory
The result was the team’s second victory of the season, after they had also triumphed in Mexico, and they ended the season on 151 points, two ahead of the trio of Mathias Lauda, Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana, who had been second going into the event. The championship winners were Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Rui Aguas in the AF Corse team.
Tough season
“Great end to a tough season,” Al Qubaisi said of the victory. “It was good to win here in Bahrain and gain a position in the championship for overall second. Reflecting on the year’s racing, the Emirati added: “We had some bad luck during the season and lost about 50 points, otherwise we could have won the championship in class.”
Race winners
The race was won by the Audi Sport Team Joest car of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval, with champions Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas, in the Porsche team, finishing sixth.
* Agencies
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