Porsche GT3 : Luxembourg driver on top
Manama : Dylan Pereira avoided drama on the track to take his second win in Season 9 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East. Qualifying in a rapid 2:02:690, the Luxembourg driver pulled clear of the tensions and battles behind him to take a comfortable win.
Opening the penultimate round of the season at Bahrain International Circuit, Team Bahrain’s Isa S. Al Khalifa was hoping for an opportunity to close the gap in points in the incredibly tight silver category, and build on his chances of a podium finish in only his second season of competition.
After an action-packed start off the grid, the young Bahraini managed to climb three places early on, putting him in 7th position overall. As the race developed, Al Khalifa found himself in an all silver category incident, side-by-side with Oman’s Khalid Al Wahaibi and Sweden’s Magnus Ohman. There was contact which resulted in Al Khalifa spinning out, and having to forfeit the race.
Speaking after the race Isa S. Al Khalifa said: “The race was quite interesting today. I had an amazing start, managed to get to the first turn on the inside and gain two or three positions. I then had French driver Simmenauer on the outside of me trying to pass, but managed to keep him to my side throughout the next three bends. I then pulled away to take seventh place, and got a nice lead on those behind me. I saw that Oliphant had come off the track, the safety car was deployed and the lead I had built was lost as all cars were bought back together. The race restarted and Simmenauer was immediately putting me under pressure again, we came down the back straight and I managed to block him from overtaking. As we were coming down into the next turn, I found myself between Khalid Al Wahaibi and Magnus Ohman all fighting for positions. One of them span out and there was a knock-on effect for nearly four cars.
“I was hoping to continue the race and finish with some points, but the car was damaged so I had to head back to the pits. The result was disappointing; however, I will give everything in the next three races and hope to finish as high as possible in the overall standings.”
Second member of Team Bahrain, Isa A. Al Khalifa, made a comeback to the championship for the final two rounds of the season. He drove an incident free and assured race to finish in 7th place overall and third place in the Silver category, securing some important team category points.
At the front of the race, Dylan Pereira took charge of a high octane and high emotion race. He showed no sign of giving away his position to championship title hopefuls Al Faisal Al Zubair of Oman who started from second and Tom Oliphant from Britain in third. With a strong start, Pereira watched the battle for the championship in his rear-view mirror, with Oliphant and Al Zubair making contact in lap three and forcing Oliphant to retire.
Al Zubair made ground on Pereira under the safety car, but Pereira’s pace was too much for the Omani teenager. The intensity of the race didn’t stop there, as drivers fought for vital championship points in the middle. Teenager Khalid Al Wahaibi of Oman saw himself enter turn one on the restart with Magnus Öhman of Sweden and Isa S Al Khalifa of Bahrain either side of him. Only Öhman came out of the turn, with Wahaibi and Isa S Al Khalifa forced to pull over. South African Saul Hack also paid the price of their collision as he was caught in the aftermath, forcing him to also post a DNF.
The first of two races taking place on Bahrain International Circuit’s F1 track configuration this weekend, the intense race adds another twist in the championship title story and leaves Oliphant with more work to do in Race 2 tomorrow to secure the silverware.
With Oliphant’s DNF, Al Zubair came under pressure from Glynn Geddie of Scotland who moved up into third. The newcomer took on the role of applying the pressure to the Omani title hopeful, but Al Faisal kept his focus and finished where he started in second place and Geddie in third.
Al Zubair of Oman is still in the race to take the overall championship title, adding 23 points to his total and closing the gap on Oliphant who walked away without adding to his.
Race 1 of Round 5 at Bahrain International Circuit saw 18 drivers race 12 laps of the Formula 1 track configuration. The drivers, hailing from 14 different countries, will be back in action tomorrow for Race 2 and another test of mental and physical strength. The series comes to a thrilling conclusion in Round 6 as an official support race for the 2018 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, 7-8 April 2018.
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