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Ahmad Al Harthy bought his FIA World Endurance Championship season off to a robust begin throughout spherical one at Losail Worldwide Circuit in Qatar on Saturday, 2nd March, with a extremely aggressive prime 4 end in LMGT3 alongside team-mates Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi.
Marking his first race weekend as a Workforce WRT driver, and racing the brand new BMW M4 LMGT3 for the primary time, the Omani overcame an unlucky automotive subject in qualifying – which restricted him to a single flying lap – to progress into the highest 10 Hyperpole session.
Reaching ninth on the grid for the Qatar Airways Qatar 1812km, Al Harthy labored his approach into the rostrum placings throughout a superb three hour-plus stint, with Martin and Rossi then sharing the steadiness of the 10-hour race. Holding third into the ultimate hour, after the final of the pit visits with 45 minutes to go, Martin rejoined in fourth and simply missed out on a deserved podium by 12 seconds.
Glorious fightback from Al Harthy and Workforce WRT in Rd1
Al Harthy brilliantly overcame the chances in his first FIA WEC qualifying session as a Workforce WRT driver on Friday, 1st March. Restricted to only one lap within the 12-minute common qualifying session as a consequence of a glitch with the No.46 BMW M4, having pitted twice the Omani rose to the event impressively and leapt from the again of the LMGT3 grid with a lap of 1m56.244 seconds (167.8 km/h).
Progressing to the grid-determining Hyperpole prime 10 shootout, he was ninth with a time of 1m56.028 seconds (168.1 km/h) and centered on delivering opening to the race on Saturday morning the place, for the primary time in his profession, he would have an unbroken three hours within the automotive.
Al Harthy, supported by prestigious companions OQ, Oman Ministry of Tradition, Sports activities and Youth, Omantel and BMW Oman, produced a robust launch and gained two locations in fast succession to maneuver into seventh.
Bottled up behind the No.85 Lamborghini for the subsequent 20 minutes or so, the Omani was edged again to eighth as a queue fashioned however by the top of the primary hour he was up into fourth. Making his first pit-stop of the race quickly after, Al Harthy rejoined in the identical place earlier than slipping to fifth.
Capable of work his approach into the rostrum placings with 90 minutes of motion elapsed, he pitted for his second cease 20 minutes later and moved again as much as third forward of his subsequent pit go to, with simply over two and half hours of racing full.
Sadly dropping some floor thereafter, dropping to eighth because the race reached the three hour mark, he climbed into sixth earlier than pitting for a fourth time round half an hour later – handing over the No.46 to Rossi.
Working eighth initially, the Italian made unbelievable progress to maneuver into the highest 5 with 4 hours concluded and he remained in that group after his subsequent pit-stop. Martin took over driving duties for his first stint with slightly below 5 hours left to go and equally impressed, shifting again into third spot after the group’s seventh cease in hour seven.
Rossi and Martin shared the ultimate few hours equally and maintained the rostrum problem in third place below evening skies in Qatar. The eleventh and last pit-stop got here with simply 45 minutes to go, Martin on the wheel of the No.46 and pitting from third. He emerged in fourth the place he remained to the flag, an excellent begin to the FIA WEC season for the Workforce WRT trio.
Ahmad Al Harthy stated, “It was a really fascinating debut race for me within the WRT BMW within the 10 hours right here in Qatar. We went with a really difficult technique, I’ve by no means finished it in my life, to have three hours within the automotive firstly of the race. This was crucial to our probabilities, we knew we needed to take a really aggressive technique to compete in opposition to just a few of the vehicles we knew have been faster than us.
“So, ranging from P9 and ending P4 was nice. Sure, we battled for a podium for almost all of the race, however fourth in a ten hour race is nice factors and I actually gelled effectively with my new group and my team-mates. Everybody drove extraordinarily effectively, Vale and Maxime actually pushed, and the group had good pit-stops and excellent technique execution. That is what it’s like working with an incredible group and this weekend will make us stronger. All of us look ahead to the subsequent spherical and coming season.
“I’d additionally wish to say how a lot I appreciated the entire unbelievable assist we acquired this weekend, and a particular thanks to the Omani Ambassador to Qatar, Sayyid Ammar Abdullah Sultan Albusaidi, who was there with us for the grid stroll and in addition supporting throughout the race. I respect the assist a lot, it actually does imply rather a lot.”
Spherical two of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season, the 6 Hours of Imola in Italy, will happen over the weekend twentieth/twenty first April. Earlier than then, Al Harthy will probably be on observe at Circuit Paul Ricard in France this Tuesday, fifth March, and Wednesday, sixth March, for the official Prologue take a look at forward of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Problem Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season.
FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 Driver Standings (after Rd1)
4th Ahmad Al Harthy / Maxime Martin / Valentino Rossi, 18pts
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