Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours – Qualifying Report
Barff Saves The Best For Last There would be three qualifying sessions late on Thursday afternoon at Dubai – a one-hour combined session, followed by two half-hour sessions for specific groups of classes. Session One - Combined The early minutes of the opening session were largely uneventful, with fewer than 30 cars venturing out in the opening 15 minutes. The #3 Abu Dhabi Black Falcon Mercedes (driver unknown) led the session at 2:05.462 at the quarter hour point – in fact, the top three cars were all SLS AMGs – but clearly that would be a very temporary benchmark. With twenty minutes gone, the #116 Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G50 jumped to the head of the SP3 class, with a 2:12.252; just ahead of the SP2-leading #100 RJN Nissan. Enzo Potolicchio briefly claimed provisional pole with a 2:05.413 in the #36 UA Audi, but he was soon deposed by Dennis Retera’s 2:04.076 which promoted the #25 Reiter Lambo to the top of the screens. Neither of the Ferrari 458s had yet ventured out on track. The #40 Besaplast Porsche led the 997 class, but its margin over the second car in class was a much-reduced 1.1s, after the #41 Carworld Porsche set a 2:10.963. The #80 Besaplast Mini led A2 at this point. Just before the halfway point, Potolicchio moved ahead of the Reiter car with a 2:03.881. Meanwhile Bandar Alesayi had the #5 Saudi Falcons Z4 into third with a 2:04.942. With 30 minutes to go, the fiftieth car – the #61 Duel Racing SEAT Leon Supercopa – had just joined in. With 40 minutes gone, the first of the 458s took to the track, when Niki Cadei exited the pitlane in the #2 AF Corse Ferrari. His opening effort put him into the top ten and his second lap of 2:04.153 took him up to third. At the same time, the #101 GT3 Racing Viper assumed the lead of SP2 with a 2:09.092. Cadei then goes top with a 2:03.180, before setting the bar at 2:02.386. Interesting! Stuart Hall brought the #9 Gulf Racing Lambo out to play with 15 minutes to go and immediately set a 13th fastest 2:07.290. The question now was how much more he would (be allowed to) trim away. His immediate response was 2.5s, as he set a fourth-fastest 2:04.711. The GT3 Viper cemented its class lead in emphatic style by slicing almost three seconds off its previous best time to go 11th overall with a 2:06.444; Aaron Scott almost certainly behind the wheel. As the session enters its final five minutes, Mark Patterson boosts the #26 Audi to sixth with a 2:05.282, and then climbs another two spots with a 2:04.497; demoting Stuart Hall in the process. Hall’s Gulf Racing colleague, Fabien Giroix, was also speeding up and had the #8 Lambo up to seventh with a 2:05.238 before the flag came out. 57 cars had so far set a time in qualifying. These cars now had 30 more minutes to improve on their times, while the remaining cars had the same time to set theirs. Session Two – A2, A5, SP3 The first of the shorter sessions was reserved for the A2 (Petrol cars 1600-2000cc and Turbo up to 1600cc), A5 (Petrol cars 3000-3500cc) and SP3 (mainly GT and SP3 (mainly GT4) classes, meaning that a maximum of 29 cars would be on track. The #118 Nova Race Arancio Ginetta G50 led in the early moments with a 2:11.559, before its sister #117 G50 caused the session to be red-flagged for a short while after clunking something unmoveable with its rear-right corner. The lead Italian car’s time would at this stage give it SP3 pole. The #80 Besaplast Racing BMW Mini again headed the A2 times. With ten minutes to go, the #120 RJN Nissan moved ahead of the Nova Race car, but was itself pipped to class pole by the #126 Marcos Racing Lotus Evora in the closing stages; Cor Euser’s post-Britcar 24 improvements clearly paying off. The #54 JR Motorsport BMW E46 GTR set the fastest time of the session and took A5 pole with a 2:11.113, while the #80 Mini remained more than three seconds clear of its class competition on A2 pole. The #116 Optimum Motorsports Ginetta elected not to take part in the session. Session Three – A6, SP2, 997 The final part of the qualifying puzzle began on time at 17:00 local time, with the significant presence of Rob Barff in the #12 AUH Ferrari near the front of the cars that exited the pitlane, and he opened his account with a 2:04.911. Barff improved to 2:03.776 on his next lap, but the JRM Nissan GT-R appeared to be suddenly running much better after a troubled meeting so far, with Michael Krumm going quicker than the Ferrari with a 2:03.609. This put the Nissan into second overall on the combined times, behind the absent (for this session) AF Corse Ferrari. The #36 United Audi and #25 Reiter Lambo also elected to sit the session out, but Matt Bell was unable to move ahead of either car despite several improvements in the #26 Audi. The #38 MRS GT-Racing Porsche 997 GT3 R improved by two seconds on its first session time to climb to eighth overall in the hands of William Langhorne. With five minutes to go, Rob Barff sets a fastest final sector, suggesting a quick one was in the offing. Indeed so – the first two sectors were quicker on his next lap and he improved to 2:02.944; an all-Ferrari front row. But this wasn’t over yet, with two purple sectors on the next lap for Barff preceding a 2:02.082 and pole! Not only is a fascinating duel in prospect between these two cars (both having the same penalties) but the gentleman drivers – Leon Price in the AUH/FF Corse car and Jack Gerber in the AF Corse 458 – are business partners. SP2 pole was sewn up by GT3 Racing in the first session – the red Viper staying in the garage for this one – but the #110 Gutroff/Bonk Corvette closed to within two seconds. The 997 class continued to be dominated by the #40 Besaplast Racing Team Porsche, which improved to 2:07.601 in the second session to maintain a two-second gap over the rest of the Porsches. With qualifying completed, there would now be a half-hour gap before the final session began – night practice. MH | 
