Tuesday 26 / November / 2024
JEDDAH: The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed trio of Oman’s Al-Faisal bin Khalid Al-Zubair, Austrian Dominik Baumann and Canada’s Mikaël Grenier head to the Red Sea city of Jeddah to compete for Gold Cup honours at the 6 Hours of Jeddah this weekend (November 28th-30th). The race on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is the final round of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup,
The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed team currently holds second in both the Team and Driver Championships in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo but will be hard-pushed to overhaul the Saintéloc Racing trio of Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Jim Pla and claim the two titles. They trail by 27 points heading into the six-hour finale in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Faisal said: “The first time in Jeddah next week. I think the whole team is looking forward to it. The track seems like an extremely difficult one, being a street circuit as opposed to a normal race circuit. Between the walls, for a race of six hours, as opposed to three hours will definitely not be easy.
“Nonetheless, we are fully prepared for the race and excited. We are currently second in the championship but first place is quite far away so it will be difficult to clinch the championship to be honest. That doesn’t take away from our aims to try and get the win. Hopefully we can get that win and end the season on a high.”
The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed team will also have to defend second place in the title race because they head to Jeddah with a slender four-point cushion over the Haupt Racing Team and its driver line-up of Arjun Maini, Michele Beretta and Jusuf Owega. CSA Racing, Tresor Attempto Racing and 2 Seas Motorsport are realistically challenging for fourth place in the final standings.
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is 6.174km long and stages the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in December 2021. It is the third longest in the Formula One racing calendar behind Spa in Belgium and the Las Vegas Strip Circuit and was designed by Carsten Tilke, the son of famed designer Hermann Tilke. A shorter 3.45km circuit hosted the 2022 World Touring Car Cup.
The weekend’s action gets underway with pit stop practice, an unofficial test session and a bronze test on Thursday (November 28) afternoon.
Further pit stop practice will be permitted on Friday morning before two hours of official practice gets underway from 15.30hrs. Crews will return to the street circuit at 20.15hrs for pre-qualifying.
The official qualifying sessions then take centre stage from 11.45hrs on Saturday (November 30) and the 6 Hours of Jeddah fires into life at 17.00hrs with the vast majority of the action taking place in the dark.
Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup competitors will share the circuit with the Saudi Supercar Club and the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club.
2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup – latest standings:
Teams
1. Saintéloc Racing ` 107pts
2. Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed 80pts
3. Haupt Racing Team 76pts
4. CSA Racing 47pts
5. Tresor Attempto Racing 43pts
6. 2 Seas Motorsport 39pts
7. Comtoyou Racing 16pts
Drivers
1. Paul Evrard/Gilles Magnus/Jim Pla 107pts
2. Al-Faisal Al-Zubair/Dominik Baumann/Mikaël Grenier 80pts
3. Arjun Maini/Michele Beretta/Jusuf Owega 76pts
4. Romain Carton/Arthur Rougier 47pts
4. Philip Ellis/Lorenzo Patrese/Leonardo Moncini/Lorenzo Ferrari 43pts
5. Isa Al-Khalifa/Martin Kodric/Lewis Williamson 39pts
6. Ugo de Wilde 38pts, etc
