Abu Dhabi-Proton racing finish fifth

Manama

The Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing team, led by Khaled Al Qubaisi, were unfortunate to not only lose out on a podium place but also a potential victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season-opener Six Hours of Silverstone in Great Britain on Sunday.

On Saturday, the team comprising Al Qubaisi, Christian Reid and Klaus Bachler, had driven their Porsche 911 RSR into an excellent third position on the grid during qualifying in the LMGTE Am class.

At the start of the race on Sunday afternoon, Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing passed the first two cars on the grid and took the lead, which they held on to for nearly three hours with the team seemingly in total control of the race until they incurred a time penalty for speeding in the pit lane thanks to a malfunction with the speed limiter.

Al Qubaisi said after the team finished fifth in the class: “We had a fantastic start and could not have asked for better and took advantage of the full course yellow flag and led the race for the first half.

Unfortunately, we picked up a penalty for speeding in the pit land after the speed limiter malfunctioned when Christian was at the wheel and cost us not only a minute but also a full position and to compound matters, the Astons and Ferraris then passed us.”

Al Qubaisi is still very optimistic though and said, “This was the first race of the season and aside from the malfunction we have had a good start. There are seven more races to go with double the points on offer at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. We will try and make up the deficit along the way.”

The next race is the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps May 2 in Belgium. Rest of season schedule: June 13-14: 24 Hours of Le Mans, France, August 30: 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Germany, September 19: 6 Hours Circuit of the Americas, US, October 11: 6 Hours of Fuji, Japan. November 1: 6 Hours of Shanghai, China. November 21: 6 Hours of Bahrain.