Autorlando Sport Porsche on pole for TOYO TIRES 24H
Autorlando Sport Porsche
Italian team, Autorlando Sport will be starting from pole position for tomorrow’s fourth edition of the TOYO TIRES 24H of Dubai. With the team’s Porsche 997 GT3, Austrian driver Richard Lietz posted a fastest lap time of 2.01.183 minutes in the closing stages of the two hour qualifying session. “I am happy with that performance because this is my very first time at this track”, said Lietz, who is sharing the car with Dane Allan Simmonsen, Italian Gianluca Roda and Portuguese Francisco Cruz Matins. Second-fastest was German team, Land Motorsport, also with a Porsche, followed by Dutch team Equipe Verschuur (Renault Mégane Trophy), who were the fastest in the SP1 class, and local team Al Faisal Racing, that was fourth overall and fastest in the A5 class.
In the opening stages of the session, it was the Italian Autorlando Sport-team that topped the time sheets with its Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. Earlier in the afternoon, the Italian team had already been fastest in free practice, underlining their ambitions for a good result in the fourth edition of the TOYO TIRES 24H of Dubai. After some 20 minutes, the German Land Motorsport team posted a fastest time of 2.02.487 minutes and that left the Germans on top for most of the session.
However, just like last year, the session was only decided in the closing stages. With less than half an hour to go, Autorlando Sport already came within 0.044 seconds of Land Motorsport’s leading time and soon after that took over first position with a lap time of 2.02.249 minutes. Keeping on their good performance, they were the first to crack the 2.02 limit with their lap time of 2.01.183 minute, set by Austrian Richard Lietz. That time remained unbeaten in the rest of the session, which was stopped eight minutes early and not re-started again because a car had spread oil at the back of the track.
Fastest car in the SP2 category for 24h-specials was the Mosler MT 900 GT3 of the Luxemburg-based Gravity Racing International team in third place overall for a long time, but they were beaten to third place by Dutch team Equipe Verschuur with the Renault Mégane Trophy car that emerged fastest in SP1. Eventually, the Mosler was even beaten to the fastest time in its class, which was taken by Kalehji Motorsport 1’s Ferrari 430 GT.
Best-placed diesel car was the German Tsunami Racing Team entry, a BMW 120 D, leading the D1-class in 49th place overall.
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