NEWS

The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed Team suffered a setback to its 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup title ambitions after a premature retirement from the fourth round at the Monza circuit in Italy on Sunday afternoon.

After starting the three-hour race from the rear of the Gold Cup grid, Oman’s Al-Faisal bin Khalid Al-Zubair was hit from behind by another car after just six laps of the race and the damage sustained to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo made it impossible for Al-Zubair, Australian team debutant Broc Feeney and Austrian Dominik Baumann to continue.

A disappointed Al-Faisal said: “Unfortunately, it was not the best of weekends. It started off quite difficult with the car set-up for us and the Pro car in the team. Then, in qualifying, we had a real issue where we couldn’t get our tyres to really switch on. That allowed us to qualify sixth in class.

“From then on, we went for quite an aggressive set-up for the race. About 20 minutes into the race, I had an accident into turn one. There was too much damage to the car and that forced us to retire the car from the race. We are still second in the championship with one round to go. That is a positive and I am looking forward to the next round in Jeddah.”

Gold Cup victory after 87 laps on the Italian circuit went to the Haupt Racing Team Mercedes trio of Michele Berreta, Jusuf Owega and Arjun Maini. The Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin crew of Matisse Lismont, Jon Van Uitert and Charles Clark led for long periods after regaining the advantage they had lost to the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi on the 18th lap when the Audi slipped out of contention nine laps later.

The Saintéloc Racing trio of Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Jim Pla extended their lead in the title race after finishing second in their Audi. The Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin eventually reached the finish in third.

After a two-hour free practice session and pre-qualifying on Saturday, it was down to the serious business of qualifying on Sunday morning. The Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed crew were at the foot of the Gold Cup standings after Q1, were fourth in Q2 and at the foot of the rankings again in Q3. With the three sessions combined, the Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed crew started at the rear of the Gold Cup field after ongoing tyre issues.

The Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup reaches its conclusion in Jeddah on November 21st-23rd.