Al Harthy makes history, takes ELMS GTE pole on Imola debut
Muscat - History-making Ahmad Al Harthy entered his name into the motorsport record books on Saturday after sensationally becoming the first Omani to qualify on pole position at the prestigious European Le Mans Series.
Delivering a flawless performance in the GTE qualifying session for round two of the season at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy, the Oman Racing driver secured the GTE pole for the four-hour race by just under 0.4 seconds.
Having been quick throughout practice, Al Harthy and teammates Sam De Haan and Marco Sorensen made good progress with the set-up of the No.69 Aston Martin Vantage GTE and in the standalone run for bronze graded drivers Al Harthy topped the times – a lap of 1m42.712 seconds.
Carrying the hopes of the Oman Racing into qualifying, Al Harthy, backed by the Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, OQ, Omantel and MHDITICS, went on to produce another exemplary showing to dominate the session.
Posting a time of 1m42.299 seconds on his first flying lap, almost half a second clear of his nearest rival, Al Harthy sliced more than three tenths of a second with his second lap, a superb time of 1m41.974 seconds – placing him an incredible 0.8 seconds ahead.
Ultimately ending the session 0.383 seconds clear, with that second lap, the Omani was elated to achieve his first European Le Mans Series pole position, on his first ever visit to Imola.
The tremendous showing follows on from a top two qualifying performance during the ELMS championship curtain-raiser at Circuit Paul Ricard in France last month, underlining Al Harthy’s competitiveness and consistency.
“I’m really happy with our performance, it’s great to have my first ELMS pole and it’s obviously a very proud moment for me to fly the flag for Oman in this way”, said an elated Al Harthy, “It’s great to be here at Imola, my first time as well, and the team did a great job in getting the car where we wanted it – honestly, perfect, perfect teamwork.
“We’ve worked all weekend throughout the practice sessions to make sure we have a good race car, so I’m really looking forward to the race now and getting a good result. As always, a huge thank you to my incredible partners for enabling us to be here in the ELMS this year.”
I’m really happy with our performance, it’s great to have
my first ELMS pole and it’s obviously a very proud moment for me to fly the flag for Oman in this way
AHMAD AL HARTHY