January 10, 2015 – Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal made a fiery start to his 2015 motorsport season as he dominated the 10th edition of the Dubai 24 Hours race that was held at the Dubai Autodrome this weekend.
Having qualified second in the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, Abdulaziz and his teammates Yelmer Buurman, Oliver Webb and Hubert Haupt drove a fantastic race, keeping out of trouble and slowly pulling away from rival cars.
The quartet were running in second place overall up until the 1st hour of the race, when they snatched the lead; they managed to maintain it throughout the extremely tough 24-hour race, in what was an absolute dominant performance, to eventually cross the finish line after 604 laps, while their closest rivals finished 4 laps behind.
Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal said: “Thank God we were able to win the 24 Hours of Dubai, the most challenging race in the region and one that attracts plenty of international drivers and manufacturers. It was my ninth participation today, I have managed to finish fourth, third and second in previous years, but finishing first is a totally different experience. The race witnessed many Code 60 periods, and we were afraid of mechanical trouble and from other teams making mistakes, but thankfully were able to win; it is a great way to start 2015 and I hope we can score more victories in the name of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I would like to congratulate my brother Saud for finishing first in the 997 class and I hope to see him win more races in the future.”
It was a similar scenario for Saud Turki AlFaisal and his teammates Keita Sawa, Anders Fjordbach and Andreas Weishaupt in the #26 Black Falcon Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Saud – who was contesting only his second Dubai 24-hour race to date – qualified fourth in the Porsche Cup (997) class, but he and his teammates moved to lead their category early in the race and maintained the winning position until the 20th hour when an issue with the Porsche meant that the team had to pit for repairs, which dropped them to second in the Porsche Cup category.
However, the #26 Porsche drivers clawed back the advantage that the sister #25 Black Falcon Porsche had built and re-took the class lead in the dying moments of the race, to finish just 10 seconds ahead.
Saud Turki AlFaisal commented: “Our aim from the beginning was to finish on the podium, and thank God were able to clinch the 997 category win. It was a tough race but the team’s experience was key to our victory, and of course I will try to tackle the race again in the future. It was an achievement to win in this race, and I hope we can achieve more success in years to come.”