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Qualifying report
Endurance Gulf 12 Hours

Oman Racing Team take overall Pole Position with Aston Martin Vantage

Darren Turner with the #44 Aston Martin Vantage set the fastest time of 2:09.341

#44 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3: Rory Butcher, Ahmad Al Harthy, Stefan Mücke
Darren Turner
#65 Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia: Alexis de Bernardi, Loris Capirossi, Nicola Cadei
#87 GDL Racing Porsche 991: Rémi Terrail, Mario Cordoni
Practice action
#10 Equipe Verschuur Renault RS01: Cesar Ramos, Filipe Barreiros, Jean-Pierre Lequeux
#87 GDL Racing Porsche 991: Rémi Terrail, Mario Cordoni
#20 MRS GT Racing Porsche GT3 991 Cup: Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Xavier Maassen
#1 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG: Jeroen Bleekemolen, Maro Engel, Khaled Al Qubaisi
#44 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3: Daniel Lloyd, Ahmad Al Harthy, Jonathan Adam

In their debut at the Gulf 12 Hours, Oman Racing Team have taken pole position in PRO class with the #44 Aston Martin Vantage, qualifying ahead of both the #2 Mercedes SLS (Al Faisal/Haupt/Buurman) and #1 Mercedes SLS (Al Qubaisi/Bleekemolen/Engel), run by Black Falcon.

Darren Turner (Adam/Al Harthy) set the fastest time of 2:09.341, whilst the combined lap times of all three qualifying session ahead of tomorrow´s fifth edition of the prestigious 12-hours race at Yas Marina Circuit saw the Aston Martin crew just 0.083 seconds ahead of the quickest Black Falcon.

AF Corse set the fastest time in PRO AM with the #51 Ferrari 458 Italia of Rizolli, Flohr and Castellacci, with Kessel Racing´s Ferrari 458 Italia (de Bernardi/Capirossi/Cadei) taking pole position in Gentlemen class. In CUP class, MRS GT-Racing qualified the #20 Porsche with a gap of almost three seconds to second place. The race will start on Friday, 11 December 2015 at 09:15 local time at Yas Marina Circuit.

Darren Turner, #44 Aston Martin Vantage -  PRO

“We are very happy. Johnny and Ahmad did a great job with their stints, we all did a nice lap time, good average. It is very close, but it will be an epic race out there and that is exactly what you want for 12 hours. I am just looking forward to the start now and everyone is really pumped-up after qualifying. We exceeded our expectations of what we were hoping to do and we now have to work on the race strategy for tomorrow.”

Niki Cadei, #65 Ferrari 458 Italia – PRO AM

“We are very happy to have taken the pole position in Gentlemen class and being six overall on the grid is a good achievement. Anything can happen in the race tomorrow, 12 hours is very long, but we are confident that we will have a successful race. I have two great team-mates and Loris (Capirossi) did a great job in his first time racing a GT-car, so we are very pleased so far!”

Andrea Rizzoli, #51 Ferrari 458 Italia – GENT

“We are not as fast as expected, but I made a very good lap and hope that the race will be fine. We will not be slower than any other car, I think that we can keep up with them and we have to finish the first part of the race without a laps gap and then hope for a good second part.”

Charles Putman, #20 Porsche GT3 991 Cup – CUP

“For both my team-mate Charles Espenlaub and myself,this is the very first time that we race at Yas Marina Circuit. Xavier Maassen has driven here once a couple of years ago. So it´s like a reverse order, we put the fastest guy in first and all of us did a tremendous job. Personally, it was my fastest lap around the circuit. We are a little disappointed that there are not more cars in our class, but we are definitely aiming for a podium finish.”

Gulf 12 Hours

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