Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours – Hour 16 Report
Closer Than Ever

A six minute stop for the Optimum Ginetta closes the SP3 lead battle to just over a lap. The third placed #54 JR Motorsport Porsche is a further lap back in third.

05:06 Frank Yu brings the #26 Audi back to the pits with its hood covering the windscreen; a lap of 2:47 indicating that he has had to nurse the car back some way.

05:11 Andreas Simonsen pits the #16 SLS from fifth.

05:15 Radermecker pits from sixth.

05:17 Bernd Schneider pits after 408 laps. Sandström follows the Merc down the pitlane, but his BMW is forced to take a short hold-penalty and then to go to the weigh-bridge before going to his pit.

Peter Kox takes sixth before Tomas Enge returns to the race in the #15 Mercedes. However, the Lamborghini pits soon afterwards and cedes the position to the Czech driver.

05:24 With the stops completed, the BMW remains 14 seconds behind the #6 Merc; Maximilian Buhk and Jörg Müller the respective drivers. Bleekemolen leads by three minutes 35 seconds.

The #26 Audi has returned to the track with Mark Patterson. Its latest stop lasted 17 minutes.

The SP2 leader, the #103 Megane, appears to have run out of fuel and loses several minutes as it is recovered to the fuel station. This delay allows the #27 VDS Mustang to retake the class lead, by 50.765 seconds.

The #110 Corvette is back in the garage for another lengthy stop, thus taking the pressure off Bryan Heitkotter in the #100 Nissan.

05:54 Bleekemolen brings the lead Mercedes in for its 11th stop.

Tomas Enge posts two-successive Joker laps. They are only marginally under the limit, but they all count.  

As the 16th hour ends, Maximilian Buhk takes the lead in the #6 SLS. Müller is ten seconds back in second, with Thomas Jäger just over a second further back in third. After  16 hours and 426 laps, 12 seconds cover the top three – not bad at all!