Thursday 14 / November / 2024
Monza: Ahmad Al Harthy produced one of the very best performances of his racing career in round one of the Blancpain Endurance Cup at Monza on Sunday, 24th April – an exceptional drive during the first third of the three-hour race putting the Oman Racing Team in contention for the Pro-Am podium.
In the battle for a richly deserved top three class finish for the bulk of the contest, the No.44 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 ultimately ended the first race of the season a nonetheless competitive fourth in Pro-Am and 13th position overall to mark a strong start to the 2016 campaign.
Ahmad, partnered by Jonny Adam and Devon Modell at Oman Racing Team powered by Motorbase this season, was very pleased with the strength of the performance throughout Sunday afternoon’s race at the Italian venue and personally delighted with the excellent overtaking he delivered.
In particular, the Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Oman Air, National Bank of Oman (NBO), Barr Al Jissah and Omantel-supported driver highlighted the consistency and reliability which enabled the trio to mount a podium bid and says such a strong start to the season is precisely what they wanted.
“Personally, that was one of my strongest performances – I enjoyed every minute!”, said the Omani 34-year-old, “It was great to pass so many cars during my stint and Devon and Jonny both did a great job too. The podium was so close for us, but the Ferraris were just too fast this weekend. We’d have taken fourth place though at the start of the weekend.
“The BOP [Balance of Performance] for all of the cars is much better this season, though, and means we can actually overtake which wasn’t the case in 2015. I have to say a massive thank you to the team for giving us a great car, and to all of the sponsors for giving us such incredible support.”
Beginning round one of the season from sixth in Pro-Am, 13th position overall, after a strong final run in qualifying from Adam earlier in the day, Ahmad took the opening stint and from the rolling start he positioned himself well into the notorious first chicane and avoided any problems.
Into the outright top 10 and fifth in Pro-Am as the race entered lap two, the Aston Martin Middle East and North Africa ambassador raced impressively against a variety of ‘Pro Cup’ cars and swiftly climbed the order further – taking ninth overall and third in class on lap five with a superb pass.
Ahmad closed up to, and swarmed all over the back of, the No.1 Team WRT Audi and after the duo each gained a place due to a car pitting the Omani made his move on the outside line into the first chicane on lap 12 to brilliantly grab seventh overall. Although edged back a couple of laps later at the Parabolica as the cars ran in a tight bunch, Ahmad took seventh again on lap 16.
Next in his sights was second place in Pro-Am, sixth overall, and after catching the target car he moved ahead into lap 30. Holding second in class and sixth in the outright classification, Ahmad’s stint came to an end at the conclusion of lap 31 where he pitted to hand the Aston over to Modell.
At the completion of the first round of pit-stops, Modell held third in Pro-Am and a top 15 placing overall and during the second hour he retained the class podium position. Staying out slightly longer than some rivals, Modell briefly moved up into the Pro-Am lead and sixth overall before serving the final stop to hand the car over to Adam.
The Scotsman took to the track with around 57 minutes remaining on the clock and progressed from fourth in class and 16th overall to end the race 13th overall and fourth in Pro-Am. Adam did climb back into the class podium placings shortly into his stint, and spent the majority of his run bottled up behind two dueling Audis, but into the final half hour he was edged back to fourth in Pro-Am.
Next on the Blancpain Endurance Cup calendar is a visit to Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in the UK over the weekend 14th/15th May for round two of the 2016 season.
Blancpain Endurance Cup Rd1 Monza Result:
1st Garage 59 – McLaren 650 S GT3
(Come Ledogar/Rob Bell/Shane Van Gisbergen)
2nd HTP Motorsport – Mercedes AMG GT3
(Dominik Baumann/Jazeman Jafaar/Maximilian Buhk)
3rd Bentley Team M-Sport – Bentley Continental GT3
(Andy Soucek/Wolfgang Reip/Maxime Soulet)
13th Oman Racing Team – Aston Martin Vantage GT3
(Ahmad Al Harthy/Jonny Adam/Devon Modell)
Blancpain Endurance Cup Rd1 Monza – Pro-Am Cup Result:
1st Kessel Racing – Ferrari 488 GT3
(Michael Broniszewski/Alessandro Bonacini/Andrea Rizzoli)
2nd AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GT3
(Giancarlo Fisichella/Lorenzo Bontempelli/Ishikawa Motoaki)
3rd Black Pearl Racing – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3
(Steve Parrow/Alexander Mattschull/Daniel Keilwitz)
4th Oman Racing Team – Aston Martin Vantage GT3
(Ahmad Al Harthy/Jonny Adam/Devon Modell)
