Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair, Germany’s Fabian Schiller and Zimbabwe’s Axcil Jeffries finished fifth in their category and 13th overall in a 49-car field at Sunday’s three-hour round of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Hockenheim.
Having qualified their Al-Manar Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 seventh, they gained two places in the Silver Cup to finish fifth, just 15 seconds behind the winners after the field bunched up in the later stages. The result dropped the trio to fourth in the Drivers’ standings.
P5 in Silver class and P13 overall out of 49 cars. Honestly, it was not so bad but we were aiming for a win or the podium this race weekend. Coming into the race we realised that the balance of the performance of the Mercedes was not as strong as the Audis. In the race, it was even more difficult for the Mercedes teams.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
Nonetheless, P5 on a very competitive grid is something to be happy with. I am just excited now for the last round in Barcelona. Hopefully we get a good result there and see how it goes.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
The race
Al-Zubair drove the opening stint and handed over to Jeffries after around 55 minutes.
At half-distance, after 50 laps, Konsta Lappalainen, Mick Wishofer and Stuart White led the Silver Cup in their Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini from Aurelien Panis, Cesar Gazeau and Nicholas Baert, with the Al-Manar Racing Mercedes seventh, just under 35 seconds off the class lead.
With a little over an hour left and 83 laps completed, the Lamborghini still led the Silver Cup from the Attempto Racing Audi R8 of Nicolas Schöll, Alex Aka and Marius Zug. Al-Zubair, Schiller and Jeffries had closed up on the leaders, moved up to sixth and were around seven seconds off the front.
Lappalainen, Wishofer and White held on to win after 101 laps, with Zug, Aka and Schöll second and Al-Zubair, Jeffries and Schiller fifth.
Practice and qualifying
Benjamin Goethe, Thomas Neubauer and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer topped Silver Cup free practice with 1min 54.558sec, while the Al-Manar Racing Mercedes was eighth with 1min 56.104sec.
After pre-qualifying on Saturday afternoon, crews contested three 15-minute qualifying sessions on Sunday morning. Al-Zubair, Schiller and Jeffries were ninth in Q1, where the Lappalainen, Wishofer and White Lamborghini set the fastest Silver Cup lap.
The Garage 59 McLaren of Vargas Maldonado, Nicolai Kjaergaard and Dean MacDonald topped Q2 in Silver Cup and was second fastest overall, while the Al-Manar Racing Mercedes was sixth with 1min 38.298sec.
The Garage 59 McLaren again led the Silver Cup in Q3, with Al-Manar Racing by HRT seventh. With the three sessions combined, Silver Cup pole went to Goethe, Neubauer and Simmenauer, while Al-Zubair, Schiller and Jeffries had to settle for a disappointing seventh on the Silver grid.
The final round of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup takes place in Barcelona on October 1st-2nd.