The 10th anniversary Dubai 24 Hour was no contest as the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Yelmer Buurman, Oliver Webb, Hubert Haupt and Abdulaziz Al-Faisal led 550 of 604 on their way to victory, a record-setting third Dubai 24 Hour victory for the team. The #2 Mercedes led the final 329 laps as the German manufacture picked up their third Dubai 24 Hour victory, matching BMW and trailing only Porsche, which has won the Middle East endurance race four times.
Ram Racing made it a Mercedes 1-2 with the #30 Mercedes of Adam Christoudoulou, Tom Onslow-Cole, Thomas Jäger and Cheerag Ayra after completing 600 laps. The #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Jordan Grogor, Matt Griffin, Rob Barff and Mohammad Jawa rounded out the podium, finishing nearly a minute and ten seconds behind the Ram Racing Mercedes.
The #28 KPM Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Paul White, Stefan Mücke and Jonathan Adam ran at the front all race, including leading 18 laps and finished fourth, eight laps down. Mücke set the fastest lap running a 1:59.545 on lap 419. The Nissan GT Academy Team RJN #23 Nissan GTR GT3 rounded out the top five, 13 laps down with Florian Strauss, Ricardo Sanchez, Ahmed Bin Khanen, Gaetien Paletou and Nick Hanmmann, the only American in the A6 class.
The #4 Scuderia Praha Ferrari of Jírí Písarík, Jaromír Jarik, Matteo Malucelli and Peter Kox finished 18 laps down in sixth with the #99 Attempto Racing Porsche 997 GT3 R of Philipp Wlazik, Bernd Kleinbach, Andreas Liehm, Bill Barazetti and Arkin Aka finishing two laps behind them in seventh and the #69 Gulf Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 GT3 of Stuart Hall, Jamie Campbell-Walter and Frederic Fatien finishing two laps behind the Porsche in eighth.
Black Falcon had two victories as their #26 Porsche 911 Cup of Andreas Fjordbach, Keita Sawa, Andreas Weishaupt and Saud Al Faisal won the 997 class, completing 580 laps and finishing ninth overall. The #25 Black Flacon Porsche driven by Christian Raubach, Manuel Metzger, Burked Kaiser and Gerwin Schuring finished second in the 997 class, ten overall and ten seconds behind the their teammates. Finishing 11th overall and rounding out the 997 class podium was the #7 Lechner Racing Middle East Porsche of Jaap Van Lagen, Klaus Blacher, Clemens Schmidt and Fahad Algosaibi.
Other class winners:
The #163 Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 of Salih Yoluc, Bradley Ellis, Euan Alers-Hankey and Adrian Barwick finishing 20th overall, winning the SP3 class.
The #76 Racingdivas by Las Moras BMW M235i Racing Cup of Lisette Braams, Sandra Van Der Sloot, Gaby Uljee and Maximilian Partl finished 23rd overall and won the CUP1 class.
Two positions behind the Racingdivas BMW was the A2 class winning #117 VDS Racing Adventures Honda Civic Type-R EP3 of José Close, Raphael van der Straten, Gregory Paisse and Michaël Divoy.
In 27th position was the A3T class winning #95 Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat León Supercopa LR of Phil Quaife, Sami Moutran, Nabi Moutran and Ramzi Moutran.
The #91 MARC Cars Australia MARC Focus V8 of Keith Kassuike, Tony Alford, Leehmhuis Australia, Duvashen Padayachee and Tarek Elgammal won the SP2 class, finishing 33rd overall.
Finally, the #75 Hofor Kuepperracing BMW E46 M3 Coupe of Martin Kroll, Chantal Kroll, Sarah Toniutti, Bernd Küpper and American Hal Prewitt won the A5 class, finishing 34th overall.
This year's Dubai 24 Hour featured 12 lead changes with the #12 FACH Auto Tech Porsche of Martin Ragginger, Otto Klohs, Jens Richter and Sven Müller leading 35 laps but finishing 88th overall. The #3 Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon Mercedes of Khaled Al Qubaisi, Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Andreas Simonsen led one lap and finished 85th, completing only 88 laps. The race featured 13 code 60s but zero full course cautions. Three hours, 19 minutes and 15 seconds of the 24 hours were run under code 60 conditions. The 89 starters completed a grand total 39,362 laps.
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