Saturday 21 / December / 2024
OQ by Oman Racing posted a seventh place finish in the Bronze class during round three of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Germany’s Nurburgring on Sunday, 28th July.
Ahmad Al Harthy and team-mates Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann combined to make strong progress from 13th on the Bronze grid during the three-hour encounter, with British racer De Haan shining during the opening stint as he charged through the order.
At one stage challenging for the podium in the OQ, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Omantel and BMW Oman supported No.30 BMW M4 GT3, in the end the trio had to settle for seventh position and depart Germany 15th in the Bronze class driver standings.
Sunday afternoon’s race began behind the Safety Car when the original green flag formation lap was impacted by a couple of cars making contact. The allotted three-hour duration already began to be counted down by the time racing proper got underway a lap later, and De Haan produced a superb performance to slice through a dramatic and scrappy first tour to climb into seventh in Bronze.
Continuing to make excellent early progress, inside a couple more laps he was into the top five and by the end of the first half hour he was fourth in class. Soon passing the No.78 Lamborghini for third in Bronze, the OQ by Oman Racing driver latterly moved into second as the first round of pit-stops began with around 50 minutes of action elapsed.
After remaining on track until just before the end of hour one, De Haan then pitted to hand the BMW over to Al Harthy for the middle stint. After all of the pit visits had played out, the Omani was fourth in Bronze and with the much-craved podium remaining within touching distance.
Running in sixth midway through his stint, Al Harthy passed a Silver class runner but this of course had no bearing on the class battle. Nearing the end of hour two the second round of stops began to be served and Al Harthy climbed into third after staying out, before stopping at the end of the hour to hand the car over to Klingmann.
Seventh in Bronze after the final pit-stops had been completed, the German racer was around six seconds shy of the next target but with the pace of the drivers so very evenly matched and nobody putting a wheel wrong, there wasn’t a chance to make realistic inroads. Closing more during the final laps, Klingmann took the chequered flag in seventh – less than three seconds shy of the top six.
Ahmad Al Harthy:
“We had an improvement in the race, obviously, from where we left off in qualifying. Sam did a really good job in the first stint, he managed to pass quite a few cars and performed very well. When I took over it was a hard stint in the middle of the race, against some very competitive drivers, but in general we did well and I was happy with my average lap times in the end.
“We knew it would be difficult, the pace of the competition is very strong and the best we could achieve today was P7. The team did a really good job with the strategy, trying to make up as many places as we could at the start and during the pit-stops. We’re looking forward to having a break between now and the FIA WEC at COTA [Circuit of the Americas], there is a lot we will work on to make sure we have the strongest finish we can to both the GTWCE and WEC seasons.”
Monza in Italy will be the venue for round four of the GTWCE Endurance Cup season over the weekend 21st/22nd September. Before then, Al Harthy will resume his dovetailed FIA World Endurance Championship campaign with round six of its season, at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, USA, at the end of August.
GTWCE Endurance Cup Nurburgring Result
1st Dennis Marschall / Dustin Blattner / Loek Hartog (Rutronik Racing, Porsche 911)
2nd Patrick Kolb / Michael Verhagen / Bastian Buus (Lionspeed GP, Porsche 911)
3rd Antoine Doquin / Till Bechtolsheimer / Sandy Mitchell (Barwell, Lamborghini Huracan)
4th Jake Dennis / Toby Sowery / Darren Leung (Century Motorsport, BMW M4)
5th Jonathan Hui / Eddie Cheever / Chris Froggatt (SKY Tempesta Racing, Ferrari 296)
6th Miguel Ramos / Louis Prette / Adam Smalley (Garage 59, McLaren 720S)
7th Ahmad Al Harthy / Sam De Haan / Jens Klingmann (OQ by Oman Racing, BMW M4)
2024 GTWCE Endurance Cup Bronze Class Standings (after Rd3)
1st Jef Machiels / Louis Machiels / Andrea Bertolini, 57pts
2nd Jonathan Hui / Eddie Cheever / Chris Froggatt, 53pts
3rd Tommaso Mosca, 39pts
4th Alexey Nesov / Dylan Pereira / Max Hofer / Andrey Mukovoz, 38pts
5th Kobe Pauwels / Job Van Uitert / John De Wilde, 34pts
6th Lilou Wadoux, 31pts
15th Ahmad Al Harthy / Sam De Haan / Jens Klingmann, 15pts
