Incredibly close competition, particularly in the headline GT3 class and the 992 class, made for a thrilling start to the 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy at Dubai Autodrome today, Friday, 10 January, where Pure Rxcing secured a dominant outright pole position for the Michelin 24H DUBAI.

Scorching pace from Thomas Preining and Harry King, in sessions three and two respectively in GT3 qualifying, and a good lap in session one from Aliaksandr Malykhin, ensured the No.92 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) concluded qualifying half a second clear with an average time of 1m58.353 seconds.

“The team’s done an amazing job, we had good preparation for the event yesterday and this morning so we’re really happy with the car we’ve got at the moment, reflected Preining, “All in all, if everything stays the same it is the perfect starting position and we’ll try to stay there. We’re still learning about the Michelin tyres, little unknowns, but honestly it’s working well.”

Joining Pure Rxcing on the front row for the 20th anniversary 24H DUBAI is the No.16 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Winward Racing, which also claimed the Pro-Am class pole in the hands of Rinat Salikhov, Victor Shaytar and Gabriele Piana. The Am class pole, meanwhile went to Paradine Competition’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO driven by Ahmad Al Harthy, Darren Leung and Toby Sowery.

Qualifying for the 992 class also provided terrific entertainment, with all three sessions very hotly contested. Red Camel-Jordans.nl wrapped-up pole with Fabian Danz, Rik Breukers and Luc Breukers producing an average time of 2m02.508 seconds. The highlight was in session two, Rik Breukers delivering the best 992 lap of all with an impressive 2m01.843 seconds.

SebLaJoux Racing enjoyed a fantastic start to the 24H SERIES by locking-out the 992 Am class with the team’s No.888 car on pole, featuring Mathys Jaubert – fastest overall in session three – Louis Perrot and Sebastien Lajoux. With little to separate, the sister No.992, driven by Alexandr Artemyev, Paul Meijer and a doubling-up Perrot, was second in 992 Am and third overall.

In GTX, the Rossa LM GT topped the times by over 0.7 seconds on its competitive world debut but an unfortunate error in the driver running order – Nikita Mazepin taking session one when it should’ve been the squad’s Am driver – meant the Graff Racing entry was penalised and ended fifth.

Leipert Motorsport, therefore, was promoted onto the GTX pole, largely thanks to an exceptional effort by Brendon Leitch in qualifying two where he produced the fastest time of the three sessions with a lap of 2m00.012 seconds in his Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO, shared with Gerhard Watzinger and Don Yount.

Team CMR headed GT4 with its Ginetta G56 GT4 EVO, an average of 2m09.618 seconds delivered by father and son Lawrence and Freddie Tomlinson and team-mate Nico Prost, to secure the class pole by well over a second. In TCE-TCX, AsBest Racing claimed pole with an average of 2m18.093 seconds from its No.102 Cupra TCR DSG piloted by Lutz Obermann, Junichi Umemoto and Henrik Sandell.