The first 18 hours of the Dunlop Dubai 24 Hour sports car endurance race were fraught with drama. As hard as the teams drove to move to the front and battle for the lead, they were struck down by collisions and mechanical failures, only to re-emerge from the garages to rejoin the fray and fight their way back towards the front—only to be struck down again, in many cases.
Not until the final six hours did some measure of calm come to pass, as the eventual winner, the #20 Stadler Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 R driven by Mark and Rolf Ineichen, Marcel Matter, Adrian Amstutz, and Christian Engelhart, reached the head of the field and stayed there, lapping quickly enough to stay in the lead but slowly enough to preserve the car.
The second-place #38 All-Inkl.Com Münnich Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 survived by dint of determined driving by its crew of team owner René Münnich, plus Marc Basseng, Rob Huff. The car has serious suspension issues but its driver wrestled it the across the line three laps behind the winner and three laps ahead of the third-placed #2 Black Falcon Mercedes of Khaled Al Qubaisi, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt, and Adam Christodoulou.
The #2 Black Falcon Mercedes was also a beast to drive; the car was broken and beaten by collisions; its aero was so messed up the car was nearly impossible to drive, but its drivers, particularly Khaled Al Qubaisi, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Hubert Haupt, late in the race, persevered and pushed it home.
