MEDIA INFORMATION
PORSCHE MOBIL 1 SUPER CUP
Round 2 – Monaco, May 26-27, 2018
For immediate release
Friday, May 25th, 2018
OMAN’S AL-ZUBAIR QUALIFIES 12TH FOR
PORSCHE MOBIL 1 SUPER CUP RACE IN MONACO
· Yelloly pips defending champion Ammermüller to pole position
MONTE-CARLO (MONACO): Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair narrowly missed out on a top 10 starting position for the second round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup when he pitted with a couple of minutes of the qualifying session remaining for Sunday morning’s race in Monte-Carlo and his top 10 time was overhauled by two drivers.
The Lechner Racing Team Middle East driver will start Sunday’s morning’s race on the world famous 3.337km circuit from 12th position. Nick Yelloly claimed pole with a lap of 1min 34.112sec, while defending Super Cup champion Michael Ammermüller and Kuwait’s Zaid Ashkanani rounded off the qualifying podium places.
Al-Zubair said: “There was a very big improvement here for me compared to last year. It felt good. I think compared to the practice session yesterday, P10, I was a little disappointed. I should have been top 10 without the traffic on the circuit. It’s tough to overtake here but I hope to be able to make a few moves in the race and get into the top 10.
“It was not a smooth qualifying for anybody. Everyone was ruining everyone’s laps. It wasn’t great. I feel there will be a lot of incidents in the race. Hopefully we can keep our nose clean and make up a few positions.”
Dutchman Jaap van Lagen held the advantage in qualifying with seven minutes of the session remaining courtesy of his lap time of 1min 34.825sec. Nick Yelloly and Mattia Drudi were second and third, but series leader Ammermüller was down in fourth place.
Al-Zubair had run for 13 laps heading into the final minutes of the session and was classified in 10th with a best tour of 1min 35.499sec. Yelloly then grabbed provisional pole with four minutes remaining with a 1min 34.112sec lap and Ammermüller climbed into second with 1min 34.363sec.
Zaid Ashkanani benefitted from a clean run to storm into third place with three minutes remaining and pushed Van Lagen down to fourth, only for Dylan Pereira to knock the Kuwaiti down to fourth himself with the third quickest lap amongst the 27 drivers who took to the circuit.
Larry ten Voorde pushed Al-Zubair down to 11th with one minute remaining, but the Omani had pitted and there was no time to come back on to the track and regain a top 10 starting position. Florian Latorre also edged ahead of the Omani in the dying seconds and he finished the session in 12th position with Yelloly, Ammermüller and Ashkanani holding the top three positions after the latter had re-passed Pereira to confirm third.
Ammermüller had been the quickest driver in Thursday evening’s training session with a fastest lap of 1min 35.398sec from Pereira and Josh Webster.
Al-Zubair carded a best lap of 1min 36.517sec during his 20 laps on the circuit and put the defending Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East champion in 10th place.
The second round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup is scheduled to get underway on Sunday morning at 10.30hrs (CET).
Ends
For further information:
Firas Nimri, Tel: + 962 7 7728 2000, E-mail: nimrifiras@yahoo.com.
Twitter: @FZRacingOman