MEDIA INFORMATION
PORSCHE MOBIL 1 SUPER CUP
Round 5 – Hockenheim, July 19-22, 2018
For immediate release
Tuesday, July 17th, 2018
OMAN’S AL-ZUBAIR AND AL-WAHAIBI HEAD TO HOCKENHEIM TO
CONTINUE QUEST FOR PORSCHE MOBIL 1 SUPER CUP SUCCESS
· Michael Ammermüller takes nine-point Super Cup lead to home race
HOCKENHEIM (GERMANY): Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair and Khalid Al-Wahaibi head to southern Germany this weekend to take part in the fifth round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup at the 4.574km Hockenheim Grand Prix Circuit.
The renowned track returns to the Super Cup calendar after a 12-month absence and Al-Zubair of the Lechner Racing Team Middle East team will be keen to put the recent Silverstone disappointment to the back of his mind and return to points-scoring ways.
Al-Wahaibi, on the other hand, scored four points on his second ever Super Cup outing in England and will be hoping to build upon that performance.
Defending champion Michael Ammermüller of Germany currently holds a nine-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship over England’s Nick Yelloly. Dylan Pereira failed to finish at Silverstone and is now 19 points adrift of the leading German in third place, while the race win at the English round of the series has lifted Florian Latorre into fourth position, four points ahead of Dutchman Larry ten Voorde.
Al-Zubair slipped to 18th in the points’ standings and Al-Wahaibi’s first points’ score on his second Super Cup appearance moved the young Omani into 20th of the 37 registered drivers. The Sultanate of Oman is currently 11th in the Nations League.
Al-Zubair said: “I’m excited for the race this weekend and I am sure that we can show that we can finish inside the top 10 after the disappointment we had at Silverstone.”
Al-Wahaibi added: “We carried out two days of testing on the circuit and that went pretty well. I think Hockenheim could be a good round for me and I am really looking forward to it after what happened in Silverstone.”
The Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup calendar returns to the Hockenheim circuit after a one-year absence. The famous track first hosted the Super Cup in 1993 and was remembered for the battle between Altfried Heger and Uwe Alzen, where the race win for Heger was one of the foundations for the German claiming the first ever Super Cup title.
The circuit was rebuilt in 2002 and long straights through the surrounding forests became a victim of revised safety standards. The lap record of 1min 43.310sec for a Porsche Super Cup driver was set six seasons ago by Germany’s René Rast and remains the benchmark for this one-make series’ visit to the demanding southern German circuit.
The weekend’s racing action in the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup gets underway with a 45-minute practice session from 16.20hrs on Friday afternoon.
Race qualifying takes centre stage from 12.55hrs on Saturday and the fifth round of the prestigious racing series fires into life at 11.05hrs on Sunday morning.
Ends
For further information:
Firas Nimri, Tel: + 962 7 7728 2000, E-mail: nimrifiras@yahoo.com.