ABU DHABI, UAE – Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair (Oman), Fabian Schiller (Germany) and Anthony Liu (China) could not challenge for the overall titles in the final two four-hour races of the 2023/24 Asian Le Mans Series at Yas Marina last weekend.
After a superb pole position, their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo finished the first race 10th, then lost an early lead in the red-flagged second race and finished eighth after a drive-through penalty.
It was a very unfortunate weekend finishing P10 and P8 in the races after starting on pole and second place and feeling like we had a really good set-p with the car. Everyone was feeling good. I think with the championship on the line there were a few mistakes made by the team.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
Also, Anthony, my team-mate, made a mistake in the race which cost us a penalty. Taking that into account, coming back from the penalties and all, it was not so bad. With our goals, which he had to try and win the race, it was difficult to accept. We just prepare again and hopefully come more prepared for the next one.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
Race two
Liu led the GT field at the start on Sunday, narrowly ahead of Alex Malykhin’s Pure Rxcing Porsche, before a two-car crash at turn 11 brought out the red flag, with the Mercedes fourth behind Pure Rxcing, Optimum Motorsport and Saintéloc Racing. After a long delay, racing resumed with under two hours left. Schiller took over in a packed pit lane, but a drive-through for a pit-lane infringement dropped the car to 17th. He recovered to 10th, and Al-Zubair took the final stint to eighth – short of what was needed for the GT Team and Drivers’ titles.
Leipert Motorsport won from Triple Eight, while Pure Rxcing’s Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm and Malykhin clinched the championship in their Porsche 911 GT3 R despite a race-one accident.
Race one
Liu started from pole and ran second to Saintéloc’s Christopher Haase at the half-hour, but the car had slipped as low as 16th before Al-Zubair took over. Al-Zubair and Schiller fought back to 10th, as Luca Stolz, Jordan Love and HH Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim won for Triple Eight. The series-leading Pure Rxcing Porsche completed only 43 of 99 laps after an accident, and Saintéloc finished 11th.
Practice and qualifying
Schiller lapped in 1min 53.417sec in first practice, when Davide Rigon’s AF Corse Ferrari was fastest with 1min 53.116sec, and Al-Zubair improved to 1min 53.184sec in second practice. In qualifying, a 1min 52.673sec lap secured pole, 0.266sec clear of Getspeed team-mates Anthony Bartone, Aaron Walker and Martin Konrad for a historic Getspeed 1-2. Title rivals Pure Rxcing and Saintéloc started fourth and eighth.