Al Faisal fights his way to 11th spot in Hockenheim
With an aim to get maximum competitive track time ahead of next month's Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup final rounds, Oman's Al Faisal al Zubair's decision to compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland in Hockenheim, Germany, provided him tough challenge as the 20 year old managed to finish 11th in the opening race of the final two races on Saturday.
More importantly, Al Faisal displayed remarkable grit to fight back and climb five places after qualifying 16th.
The Lechner Racing Team Middle East driver gradually got to grips with the pace of his rivals and delivered another polished performance in a race where pole-sitter Thomas Preining overcame a safety car incident to fend off Michael Ammermüller and snatch the win by 3.047 seconds to clinch the 2018 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland title.
Speaking after the first race, Al Faisal said, “I qualified in P16. That wasn’t great. I had two track limits. In the race, we gained five positions and finished P11. The pace was really good. I am happy with that. I am starting P17 for the second race and hopefully I can get an even better result.”
After the start of the 16-lap race, Al Faisal moved up from 16th to 13th during the opening two laps before the safety car came out on to the course after an incident involving Jaap van Lagen and a hefty collision involving Richard Wagner’s car on the opening lap. Racing resumed on lap six. The leading trio maintained their positions and Al Faisal continued his climb through the field and was up to 11th place heading into lap ten. The Omani slipped back to 12th on the next lap behind Igor Walilko, as Preining maintained his advantage over Ammermüller and Larry Ten Voorde.
But Ten Voorde was awarded a drive through penalty for an earlier pushing incident with Pereira and the Dutchman fell back to 12th place. His punishment lifted Al Faisal back to 11th after another on-track incident involving Ayhancan Güven.
Preining held on to take the win from Ammermüller with Gustav Malja snatching third and Al Faisal finishing 11th.
Earlier, 32 cars took part in Friday’s practice session on the 4.574km circuit. Al Faisal ran for 19 laps and finished the stint down in 20th place with a best tour of 1min 43.809sec.
Qualifying took place on Saturday and Preining made sure of pole for the first of the races by edging out Pereira with a lap of 1min 40.893sec. Al Faisal qualified 16th for the opening race with a lap of 1min 42.138sec and in 17th for the final race with a counting lap of 1min 42.050sec.