Bahrain: Al Naboodah Racing’s Clemens Schmid scored his second win of the weekend to ensure a 100 per cent win record in sixth season of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East as the first round at Bahrain International Circuit came to an end. Following on from his second place finish in Race 1, Skydive Dubai Falcons’ Shaikh Hasher Al Maktoum showed he will be a force to be reckon with in the new series after he maintained fourth place in qualification throughout the race.
After the excitement of Race 1, Race 2 was a more controlled affair with Schmid, Kuwait’s Zaid Ashkanani, Charlie Frijns and Shaikh Hasher Al Maktoum all finishing as they started. The star of the show was Ahmad Al Harthy who worked his way up from 14th to finish sixth and secure vital team points for Al Naboodah Racing. With Skydive Dubai also adding more points, the Season 6 team battle is set to be the closest yet with the newly formed BuZaid-BuCharlie team of Ashkanani and Frijns extending their lead at the top. The next instalment of the series will take place in Dubai in December with four more rounds of regional racing to take place after that.
After leading from start to finish, Schmid was delighted with a weekend in which he took the maximum points from both races: “Obviously I very happy — it’s been a great weekend. I had a good start and was able to keep Zaid behind as we got to turn one and from them it was a matter of concentration to the end. In the final laps the track was really slippery so I had a couple of scares but nothing too serious and we move forward to the home round in Dubai with a lot of confidence and some extra points in the bag.”
As the lights went out at BIC, the cars bolted into action with Ahmad Al Harthy, starting from 14th following a place penalty incurred from Race 1, powering up to 8th position within the first few corners. Keen to make amends after receiving the punishment from race stewards late last night, the Omani looked determined but controlled as he fought to close the gap on the race leaders.
