MEDIA INFORMATION
PORSCHE MOBIL 1 SUPER CUP
Round 6 – Hungaroring, August 2-4, 2019
For immediate release
Sunday, August 4th, 2019
AL-ZUBAIR QUALIFIES IN SEVENTH FOR SECOND SUCCESSIVE PORSCHE
MOBIL 1 SUPER CUP WEEKEND AT THE HUNGARORING
MOGYORÓD (HUNGARY): Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair qualified in seventh place for the second successive weekend, as Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup drivers entertained the lunchtime crowds at the Hungaroring in Hungary on Saturday.
The BWT Lechner Racing Team driver ran a best lap of 1min 48.241sec to finish a tight 30-minute qualifying session just 0.461 seconds behind pole winner Tio Ellinas of Cyprus.
Al-Zubair’s BWT Lechner Racing Team colleagues and title rivals Julien Andlauer and Michael Ammermüller qualified in second and third positions.
Al-Zubair said: “It was a very good qualifying session. P7, but I believe we will start the race from P6 because one of the guys got his fastest lap under a yellow.
“Hopefully it will be P6 and that will be five out of the top six as Lechner cars. It is Walter’s (Lechner) birthday on Sunday, so it would be great to get a good result. My hope is to finish the race in the top five or six. That would be great.”
The qualifying session always takes on extra significance because of the nature of the Hungarian circuit with overtaking notoriously difficult during a race.
Ellinas hit the top of the timings with a first fast lap of 1min 48.619sec and was followed by Mikkel Pedersen and Larry Ten Voorde in dry track conditions. Al-Zubair opened his account with a 1min 52.146sec run and that put him down in 13th place.
Ammermüller then stormed to the top of the standings with a second full lap of 1min 47.998sec, as Turkey’s Ayhancan Güven and series leader Andlauer filled second and third places and Al-Zubair climbed to seventh with a lap of 1min 48.735sec.
A storming lap of 1min 48.636sec lifted Al-Zubair into fifth place on his third timed lap, but Ammermüller continued to lead from Güven and Andlauer. Dylan Pereira and Andlauer then returned to the pits for tyre changes and they were followed by the rest of the leading group with around 19 minutes of the session remaining.
Seventh-placed Florian Latorre was the first of the top 10 to return to action with 16 minutes of the session to run, but the Frenchman couldn’t take advantage of an empty track and he retained seventh place, as Joey Mawson and Ten Voorde were the first of his main rivals to leave the pits with a little over eight minutes remaining.
As qualifying action resumed in earnest over the final minutes, Andlauer hit the front with a 1min 47.847sec run and Al-Zubair climbed to fourth with a 1min 48.241sec, as Ellinas snatched third behind Ammermüller.
With two minutes left on the clock, Pereira displaced Al-Zubair with a 1min 48.234sec run and Ellinas claimed provisional pole with a 1min 47.780sec tour. Mawson also moved in front of Al-Zubair, who slipped back to seventh after Ten Voorde carded a potent lap.
Ellinas had done enough to claim pole position from Andlauer and Ammermüller, with Al-Zubair qualifying behind Ten Voorde, Mawson and Pereira in seventh place.
Drivers had to cope with heavy rain for the training session on Friday afternoon. Julien Andlauer mastered the conditions better than his rivals to card a best lap of 2min 03.134sec during his 18 laps on the slippery circuit. Dylan Pereira was a mere 0.062 seconds behind in second and Jaap Van Lagen rounded off the top three.
Al-Zubair ran for 17 tours of the circuit and a best run of 2min 04.743sec put the Omani into 12th amongst the 31 starters.
The Hungarian round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup takes centre stage from 11.40hrs on Sunday.
Ends
For further information:
Firas Nimri, Tel: + 962 7 7728 2000, E-mail: nimrifiras@yahoo.com.
Twitter: @FZRacingOman