Dubai: Defending champion Abdul Aziz Al Faisal set the fastest time at the end of the second day’s pre-season testing for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) on Thursday.
As many as 17 drivers continued to put mileage on their GT3 Cup car with four one-hour practice sessions, as they get used to the track and continue their build-up to the opening race this weekend.
Reigning champion Al Faisal immediately signalled his intent to defend his title with the day’s fastest time of 1 minute 06.891 seconds. “Today got better and better so I’ve now got a good base set-up for the race,” he said. “It’s a short track; qualifying is important and when racing you can’t afford any mistakes out there. Every year the standard gets higher, all drivers are improving so I know if I’m to defend the championship, I’ll need to push as hard as I can right from day one.”
The runner-up on the second day of testing was Bahrain’s former champion Salman Bin Rashid Al Khalifa, who returned after a year’s break to show his class with a lap time of 1:06.991. He was closely followed by Austrian Clemens Schmid, who had a time of 1:06.824.
