The first part of the UAE back-to-back tour of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East took place at the Dubai Autodrome, and it saw the same dominating driver as the last weekend of the series at Bahrain in December 2023: Theo Oeverhaus from Germany, who now has won five of the six Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East races so far.

Two days of testing were perfect preparation for all the drivers for the Dubai race weekend, which started with free practice on Saturday. Theo Oeverhaus already set the tone for what was to come with finishing on top ahead of fellow countryman Colin Boenighausen. Another German, Soeren Spreng, topped the ProAM class, Saud Al Saud from Saudi Arabia, the GCC category, while Austrian Leo Willert was the quickest of the AM drivers.

Oeverhaus then claimed pole position for the first race. The 17-year-old was more than three tenths of a second faster than fellow German Colin Boenighausen, with Australian Jackson Walls in P3. Saud Al Saud from Saudi Arabia topped both the ProAM and the GCC categories, while Austrian Leo Willert was the fastest in the AM class.

At the start of the race, Oeverhaus made good use of his pole position, while behind him, Walls managed to improve to P2 ahead of Janne Stiak, with Boenighausen dropping back to fourth. Even a little mistake under braking didn«t prevent Oeverhaus from keeping the lead until the finish line without being really challenged. The group behind him was fighting closely over the whole distance, with Walls staying in P2. Stiak crossed the line in P3, but a 5-second penalty for a false start dropped him back to P5, giving the final place on the podium to Boenighausen.

On top of the ProAM as well as the GCC class was Ahmad Al-Shehab from Kuwait. A collision between the AM drivers, Leo Willert and Sebastian Gorga, caused a three-lap Safety-Car period and also resulted in Gorga receiving a grid penalty for the Sunday race.

In Sunday«s qualifying, Oeverhaus again claimed pole position for the second race of the third weekend of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East at Dubai Autodrome, just ahead of his only 16-year-old German fellow countrymen, Janne Stiak and Colin Boenighausen. Showing his professionalism, we were not even completely happy, “as I did not get the optimum out of my fastest lap." Soeren Spreng was fastest in the Pro AM class, and Ahmad Al-Shehab from Kuwait topped the GCC class. In the AM category, Sebastian Gorga was fastest on track but had to start from behind Leo Willert due to his penalty.

Theo Oeverhaus then crowned his perfect weekend by dominating the second race. Taking the lead immediately from pole position, he extended his advantage continuously and finally crossed the finish line 4.6 seconds ahead of Walls and Boenighausen. Stiak did not have a perfect start and dropped back to P4 immediately, never managing to get the positions back again even after trying everything. “The group behind me was fighting quite hard; that might have made it a bit easier for me,” Oevenhaus stated. “It was a great weekend for me, and I hope I can continue like this next week in Abu Dhabi.”

The ProAM class saw a lot of great fighting and a few incidents. In the end, it was Canadian Bashar Mardini, ProAm champion last year, coached this time by Dylan Pereira, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup champion for Lechner Racing in 2022, who came out on top of Ahmad Al-Shehab from Kuwait, who won the GCC class. First place in the AM category went to Sebastian Gorga from Italy, who made up for his disappointing Saturday race.

Series Head and Promoter Robert Lechner was

“very pleased with the close and entertaining racing we saw over the whole weekend. I want to thank everybody - our drivers, teams, engineers, mechanics, and also the organisers - Porsche Middle East & Africa FZE, Al Nabooda Automobiles, and Dubai Autodrome for a great event. We are already looking forward to coming back here next year. But first, of course, we will go to Abu Dhabi now for the second part of our UAE tour next weekend.”