JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed trio of Oman’s Al-Faisal bin Khalid Al-Zubair, Austria’s Dominik Baumann and Canada’s Mikaël Grenier secured second place in both the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup by finishing second in the Gold Cup at the 6 Hours of Jeddah on Saturday evening.
The race was halted by a lengthy full-course yellow after pole-sitter Arthur Rougier’s CSA Racing Audi collided with Nicolo Schiro’s Kessel Racing Ferrari. Al-Manar worked steadily through the field to finish behind champions Saintéloc Racing (Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Jim Pla) in front of big crowds at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
GT World Challenge is always a difficult championship but the track here in Saudi Arabia was extremely demanding. Honestly, we had a blast. All the drivers enjoyed it. What a blessing to see a championship like this in Saudi Arabia. Let’s hope we see more races in other Gulf countries.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
It was chaotic. We got a 30-second penalty and we got a five-second penalty and we got a puncture. But we still finished second and second in the championship. That is something we should be really proud of. We would have liked to have won the championship but I guess that gives us the target to improve one step next year.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
Imperiale Racing’s Lamborghini of Dennis Lind, Alberto Di Folco and Philippe Denes completed the Gold Cup podium, four laps ahead of Haupt Racing Team’s Arjun Maini, Michele Beretta and Jusuf Owega.
Practice and qualifying
After two paid pre-event tests, the team ran in official free practice, where Saintéloc topped the times with 2min 00.138sec, ahead of Tresor Attempto Racing; Al-Manar’s best was 2min 00.885sec. Qualifying, split into a session per driver, proved difficult, and the combined times left the team sixth among Gold Cup runners. Simon Gachet, Hugo Cook and Arthur Rougier took pole in the CSA Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo, ahead of Saintéloc.
Final standings – Teams
- Saintéloc Racing – 140pts
- Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed – 104pts
- Haupt Racing Team – 95pts
- CSA Racing – 48pts
- Tresor Attempto Racing – 43pts
- 2 Seas Motorsport – 39pts
- Comtoyou Racing – 31pts