IMPRESSIVE START
Al Harthy secures fourth place at Qatar 1812 km FIA WEC on Team WRT and BMW debut
Muscat - Ahmad al Harthy got his FIA World Endurance Championship season off to a strong start at Losail International Circuit in Qatar on Saturday with a highly competitive top-four finish in LMGT3 alongside teammates Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi.
Marking his first race weekend as a Team WRT driver, and racing the new BMW M4 LMGT3 for the first time, the Omani overcame an unfortunate car issue in qualifying – which limited him to a single flying lap – to progress into the top 10 Hyperpole session.
Achieving ninth on the grid for the Qatar Airways Qatar 1812km, Al Harthy worked his way into the podium placings during an excellent three hourplus stint, with Martin and Rossi then sharing the balance of the 10-hour race. Holding third into the final hour, after the last of the pit visits with 45 minutes to go, Martin rejoined in fourth and just missed out on a deserved podium by 12 seconds.
“It was a very interesting debut race for me in the WRT BMW in the 10 hours here in Qatar. We went with a very challenging strategy, I’ve never done it in my life, to have three hours in the car at the beginning of the race. This was very important to our chances, we knew we had to take a very aggressive strategy to compete against a few of the cars we knew were quicker than us,” said Al Harthy.
We battled for a podium for majority of the race, but fourth in a 10 hour race is great points and I gelled well with my teammates
AHMAD AL HARTHY
“So, starting from P9 and finishing P4 was great. Yes, we battled for a podium for the majority of the race, but fourth in a 10 hour race is great points and I really gelled well with my new team and my teammates. Everyone drove extremely well, Vale and Maxime really pushed, and the team had perfect pit-stops and perfect strategy execution.
This is what it’s like working with an amazing team and this weekend will make us stronger. We all look forward to the next round and coming season.
“I’d also like to say how much I appreciated all of the fantastic support we received this weekend, and a special thank you to the Omani Ambassador to Qatar, Sayyid Ammar Abdullah
Sultan Albusaidi, who was there with us for the grid walk and also supporting during the race. I appreciate the support so much, it really does mean a lot.”
Earlier on Friday, Al Harthy brilliantly overcame the odds in his first FIA WEC qualifying session as a Team WRT driver. Limited to just one lap in the 12-minute regular qualifying ses
sion due to a glitch with the No.46 BMW M4, having pitted twice the Omani rose to the occasion impressively and leapt from the back of the LMGT3 grid with a lap of 1m56.244 seconds (167.8 km/h).
Progressing to the grid-determining Hyperpole top 10 shootout, he was ninth with a time of 1m56.028 seconds (168.1 km/h) and focused on delivering a good opening to the race on Saturday morning where, for the first time in his career, he would have an unbroken three hours in the car.
Al Harthy, supported by prestigious partners OQ, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Omantel and BMW Oman, produced a strong launch and gained two places in quick succession to move into seventh.
Bottled up behind the No.85 Lamborghini for the next 20 minutes or so, the Omani was edged back to eighth as a queue formed but by the end of the first hour he was up into fourth. Making his first pit-stop of the race soon after, Al Harthy rejoined in the same position before slipping to fifth.
Al Harthy dropped to eighth as the race reached the three hour mark, but he climbed into sixth before pitting for a fourth time around half an hour later – handing over the No.46 to Rossi.
Running eighth initially, the Italian made fantastic progress to move into the top five with four hours concluded and he remained in that group after his next pit-stop. Martin took over driving duties for his first stint with just under five hours left to go and similarly impressed, moving back into third spot after the team’s seventh stop in hour seven.