The 7th Dubai 24 Hours is four hours old, and so far it has been an excellent race. While Ferrari and Lamborghini dominated through the first two hours, Mercedes and BMW pushed to the front in the third hour.
70 cars took the green flag, divided into six classes. After four hours, all 70 were still circulating.
Ferraris owned the front row at the start, with the Rob Barff in the AUH Motorsports/FF Corse Ferrari on the pole next to the Matt Griffin in the similar AF Corse SRL car, but it was the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo of Peter Kox which led the first lap, as Kox charged down the inside and beat Barff top the first turn. Barff took the lead back on the second lap, while Griffin spun on lap 8, leaving Kox in second.
When asked if he made his big dash to prove that the new Reiter Lambo was better than the Ferraris, driver Peter Kox told Radio Le Mans, “I started wide because I couldn’t see and then I just went.”
Contact on lap 11 sent the No. 32 JRM Nissan GT-R GT3,—in its debut race—into the pits with suspension damage. On lap 40 it was back in the pits in flames; the exhaust caught the bodywork on fire. JRM hopes to sell these cars; unfortunately the new GT-R has had a lot of bad luck so far.
The Nissan was still in the garage at the four-hour mark, with its sister car, the No. 100 370Z also in the garage.
By the end of the first hour, as he pitted from the lead, Rob Barff in the FF Corse Ferrari led the field by 11 seconds. He was third behind Matt Griffin when they both pitted 15 minutes before the two-hour mark, giving the lead back to Peter Kox until he pitted a few minutes later.
Next: Dubai Rules
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Dubai Rules
The Dubai 24 has a number of unusual rules, among them being that drivers can do a maximum two-hour stint, another being that the pit lane speed limit is only 40 kph.
Another oddity of the Dubai rules is that there is a single fueling station; teams cannot refuel their own cars: drivers have to line up and wait for fuel. If a number of cars pit simultaneously, they might all lose a lot of time waiting. This prompted some teams to pit off-schedule to catch the refueling station while it was empty, and other cars to pit for tires (with four tire-changers and four guns, tire-changes took very little time,) run a lap and repit for fuel.
A more important rule is the targeted-lap-time rule: cars are penalized for driving faster in the race than their qualifying lap times, and penalized after qualifying for lapping faster than 2:05. Cars which qualify faster than 2:05 have to carry extra weight, raise their ride heights, and are limited in how much fuel they can take on with each stop, making those cars pit more frequently.
This creates an interesting situation for the top two Ferraris: because they qualified so quickly, both can lap a second-and-a-half faster than most of their competitors, but have to make up for the extra weight and the extra trips down the very slow pit lane.
Mercedes to the Lead
Two-and-a-half hours into the race, Mercedes held three of the tops five spots. The No. 3 Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 led the similar No. 16 Mercedes of Heico Motorsport, followed by the Saudi Falcons by Schubert, BMW Z4 GT3, the 20101 winner. The No. 6 Heico Motorsport Mercedes ran fourth.
A pair of Porsches, the No. 38 MRS GT-Racing and the No. 18 Fach 2 Auto Tech cars, were first and second in the 997 class and fifth and sixth overall.
After Rob Barff, Matt Griffin and Peter Kox worked so hard to stay up front through their first two-hour stints, their replacement drivers’ Jordan Grogor, Jack Gerber, and Nico Pronk, couldn’t hold the pace and ended up a lap down with Grogor seventh, Pronk tenth, and Gerber eleventh. The Ferraris were allowed to go faster, but the next set of drivers were not able
The No. 126 Marcos Racing Lotus Evora in 23rd led the SP3 class, and also led the top SP2 car, the tube-framed No. 105 GC Automobile GC10-V8. The GC10 was a good three seconds a lap faster, but the Evora was able to run two-hour stints, gaining positions by not losing time on pit lane.
Four Hours—Code Sixty
Just before the four-hour mark a Code 60—Dubai’s version of a full-course caution—froze the field. Edward Sandström in the No. 1 Saudi Falcons by Schubert BMW Z4 GT3 held a lead by 36 seconds over a trio of Mercedes SLS AMG GT3s, the No. 3 Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon car of Khaled Al Qubaisi leading that group.
Jordan Grogor in the No. 12 FF Corse Ferrari was fifth, two laps down. In sixth was Otto Klohs in the Fach 2 Auto Tech Porsche GT3R, leading the 997 class. Klohs was followed by Marco Cioci in the No. 2 AF Corse Ferrari, another lap down.
Leading SP2 (GT4 over 3.5 liters) was the VDS Racing Ford Mustang in 22nd, ahead of the SP3 leading Marcos Racing Lotus Evora. The Evora was still running two-hour stints, making up for having less power by spending less time in the pits.
The No. 50 Kuepperracing BMW E46 GTR led the A5 class, 24 laps down in 53rd, while in 42nd, the No. 80 Besaplast Racing Team BMW Mini led A2, 15 laps behind the leaders.
Only BMW and Porsche have ever won at Dubai, with two BMWs and four Porsche in the top 13, both marques are well-positioned to repeat. But the 2012 Dubai 24 Hours is only one-sixth over; Mercedes, Lamborghini, and Ferrari are also running strong.
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