DUBAI // Khaled Al Qubaisi, the Emirati driver, celebrated the "biggest win" of his career as one of the quartet of drivers for Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon, which triumphed in the Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai on Saturday.
Al Qubaisi drove the final leg and, along with fellow drivers Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Thomas Jager, completed 628 laps in their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 to establish a distance record in the event at the Dubai Autodrome.
"This was an amazing race and amazing win," Al Qubaisi said. "My biggest win, for sure. A very tough and very, very close race with many behind-the-scenes incidents. Our problems started early with an engine blow-up in practice on the first day. Finding a spare engine was a tough job, but credit to the team; they did it.
"It was really nerve-racking for the whole 24 hours … Even after we took the lead with five hours to go we were chased hard. Only a few seconds separated the top three for several hours."
As the man who drove the final stint for his team, Al Qubaisi was invited for the traditional camel ride to the winners' podium for the prize ceremony.
"It shows that we in the UAE are capable of putting a team together of the highest standard, competing with the best and beating the best," Al Qubaisi said.
"We were up against top professional drivers from all around the world. And we showed we can do it. Now we need to get the people behind us, so we can be proud to win for the UAE."
Mercedes-Benz enjoyed a podium sweep, with second and third place both going to the Heico Motorsport team, who were also driving SLS AMG GT3s
Last year's winning team, Saudi Falcons by Schubert, saw their drivers Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Faisal bin Laden, Edward Sandstrom, Jorg Muller and Claudia Hurtgen in contention for a podium finish with the BMW Z4 for most of the race, but debris in the air intake with three hours remaining made them drop to fourth, which is where they finished.
"It was a disappointing outcome for us," said the Saudi Falcons team engineer Stefan Wentl. "We were chasing hard for nearly 20 hours and then a stone damaged the air filter and we lost the time making the repairs."
The triumph was the first victory for Mercedes-Benz in a 24-hour race since the Mercedes-powered Sauber C9 won the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours. Behind the three SLS AMGs that locked out the podium and the BMW Z4 in fourth, the best-placed Porsche was the No 18 Fach Auto Tech entry, driven by Otto Klohs, Heinz Bruder, Carlo Lusser, Martin Ragginger and Swen Dolenc to finish fifth.
Victory in the 997 class went to the Carworld Motorsport-Porsche, driven by Steve Matthyssen, Philippe Richard, Roger Grouwels and Robert Nearn.