Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair and Khalid Al-Wahaibi head to southern Germany this weekend for round five of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at the 4.574km Hockenheim Grand Prix Circuit.
The famous track returns to the Supercup calendar after a 12-month absence, and Lechner Racing Team Middle East’s Al-Zubair is keen to put his recent Silverstone disappointment behind him and return to the points.
Al-Wahaibi, by contrast, scored four points on only his second Supercup outing in England and hopes to build on that.
The standings
Defending champion Michael Ammermüller of Germany leads the Drivers’ Championship by nine points from England’s Nick Yelloly. Dylan Pereira failed to finish at Silverstone and is third, 19 points behind, while Florian Latorre’s Silverstone win lifted him to fourth, four points ahead of Dutchman Larry ten Voorde.
Al-Zubair dropped to 18th in the standings, and Al-Wahaibi’s first points moved the young Omani to 20th of the 37 registered drivers. Oman is 11th in the Nations League.
I’m excited for the race this weekend and I am sure that we can show that we can finish inside the top 10 after the disappointment we had at Silverstone.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
We carried out two days of testing on the circuit and that went pretty well. I think Hockenheim could be a good round for me and I am really looking forward to it after what happened in Silverstone.
Khalid Al-Wahaibi
Hockenheim history
Hockenheim first hosted the Supercup in 1993, remembered for the battle between Altfried Heger and Uwe Alzen; Heger’s win there helped him become the first ever Supercup champion.
The circuit was rebuilt in 2002, when its long straights through the surrounding forests fell victim to revised safety standards. The Supercup lap record of 1min 43.310sec, set six seasons ago by Germany’s René Rast, remains the benchmark for the series’ visit.
Action starts with a 45-minute practice session from 16.20hrs on Friday afternoon. Qualifying takes place from 12.55hrs on Saturday, and the race starts at 11.05hrs on Sunday morning.