MUSCAT: Oman’s Ahmad al Harthy and team-mates Charlie Eastwood and Sam De Haan began the Asian Le Mans Series with a top six finish during the first race of the new season at Dubai Autodrome on Saturday.
In a competitive and challenging four-hour race in the United Arab Emirates, the No 69 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 took the chequered flag just 0.4 seconds shy of the fifth placed McLaren 720S GT3 in the action-packed GT class.
Al Harthy took the opening stint, beginning at 16.30 local time, and delivered a strong drive from sixth on the GT class grid. Although losing some ground early on, the Omantel, OQ and MHD-ITICS backed racer settled down well and 30 minutes into the race he was back inside the top six.
Under immense pressure during the latter stages of the second half of his stint from the No 6 Mercedes-AMG, Al Harthy produced faultless laps and didn’t put a wheel wrong to maintain position and importantly keep the rival car at bay.
Moving up into fourth position before the first round of pit-stops, Al Harthy handed over the Oman Racing car to British team-mate Sam De Haan early in hour two and when the race order settled De Haan held fifth place.
Slipping back to sixth position, he stayed there until the second pit-stop which came in hour three when Aston Martin ‘works’ driver Eastwood climbed behind the wheel and maintained the top six placing after the order had once again settled down.
Staying sixth up to a Full Course Yellow cautionary period near the end of the hour, Eastwood pitted for a final time and then returned to the track in eighth position in GT where he ultimately remained to the chequered flag.
Pressuring for seventh place during the closing laps, Eastwood couldn’t quite make the breakthrough but eighth – and very importantly a healthy and undamaged Aston Martin – was a good start to the championship.
Post-race, though, driving time infringement penalties for a couple of rival entries meant Oman Racing was classified in sixth position.
“It’s a very competitive championship, a very tough race, but we knew that coming into the weekend and it’s why we’re here”, said Al Harthy, “Finishing the opening race in a decent position was our priority from the outset, and also to look after the car as much as possible with two races back-to-back this weekend and then two more next weekend.
“We achieved what we set out to do in both respects, and we all drove the best we could. It’s a good start to the Asian Le Mans Series for us, the whole team did a great job, and now the objective is to have a good race two here in Dubai and hopefully challenge for an even better finish.”
