Wednesday 22 / January / 2025
Muscat: The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya motorsport race track in Montmeló, Barcelona, seems to be a happy hunting ground for Oman’s talented racer Al Faisal al Zubair.
On Saturday, the Omani teamed up with German Fabian Schiller to claim the top honours in race one in the final round of the 2022 International GT Open Series in their Mercedes AMG car.
Racing for GetSpeed Performance team as a guest entry in the Pro category, the victory of Al Faisal and Schiller meant that the fight for the overall title between regular participants moves to the final race of the series later on Sunday.
Al Faisal had competed in the International GT Open last year and finished a creditable third overall with a runner-up finish at the same venue in the final round, but in a different car, Porsche.
Al Faisal recently concluded his maiden participation season in the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS – Endurance Cup.
Al Faisal Al Zubair, teammate Fabian Schiller and Zimbabwe’s Axcil Jeffries rounded off their first season together in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS – Endurance Cup by finishing in fourth place in the Silver Cup category at the season’s finale in Barcelona. The result also confirmed that the Al Manar Racing trio finished fourth in the final Silver Cup Drivers’ Championship.
On Saturday, GetSpeed Performance for Al Faisal Al Zubair-Fabian Schiller, who took the pole and dominated the race despite the 10-second handicap for first appearance in the closing round.
They beat the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911R of Riccardo Cazzaniga-Klaus Bachler with the Oregon Team Lamborghini of BenjaHites-Leo Pulcini third. The championship leaders, Hites-Pulcini, made a little step forward, as most direct rivals, Nick Moss-Joe Osborne (Optimum Motorsport McLaren) finished fifth. They are now separated by five net points only.
Speaking after the strong victory, Al Faisal said: “Honestly, what a way to start a weekend. A perfect race, starting with the practice round and then a pole with Schiller on the wheels.
“We were quite confident going into the race after the strong display in practice and qualifying sessions.”
Al Faisal added: “During the race, Schiller maintained his dominance and came into the pits as a leader. With 35 minutes to go, I completed the race, keeping a good lead over the nearest rivals, Riccardo Cazzaniga-Klaus Bachler in Porsche.
“So far, we had a great round and we hope to finish off with a nice display on Sunday.”
At the start, Schiller keeps the advantage ahead of Pulcini as Osborne jumped to third ahead early.
With a car going into the gravel in turn 10, safety car came out. After the restart, in lap five, positions remain unchanged at the top, with Schiller taking a four-second advantage on Pulcini.
Safety car was back at the end of lap 10, as two cars crashed. The race was restarted two laps later and the pit stop window in lap 14 had Schiller in lead.
Al Faisal took over and despite a couple of stops, finished the race as comfortable winner, seven seconds ahead of Bachler and nine seconds on Hites.
Earlier, in the qualifying, there was delay with the start due to fog. But that was no issue for Fabian Schiller. The fast German driver, on a guest appearance with Al Faisal Al Zubair in one of the Mercedes AMG of GetSpeed, took pole, setting a time of 1.43.811.
“It’s been a perfect weekend so far’, Schiller said:“The team has given us a car that goes perfectly on this very nice track and we’ll see what happens later,” he added.
Schiller’s only rivals for the pole were his GetSpeed teammate Sébastian Baud and championship co-leader Leonardo Pulcini in Lamborghini, who both were provisionally in pole during the session.
Eventually, Pulcini took second, only 0s130 behind, while the other GetSpeed Mercedes was third, 0s338 behind.
