Saturday 11 / January / 2025
Hockenheim (Germany): Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair again joins forces with Germany’s Fabian Schiller and Zimbabwe’s Axcil Jeffries to take part in the three-hour round of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS – Endurance Cup at Germany’s Hockenheim circuit this weekend (September 2-4).
The trio will compete in their usual Mercedes-AMG GT3 running under the Al-Manar Racing by HRT banner and entered in the Silver Cup category. They will be hoping to bounce back from a premature retirement at the recent TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa that saw them slip to third place in the Silver Endurance Cup’s Drivers’ Championship.
Al-Zubair said: “I am looking forward to the race, three hours at Hockenheim. Unfortunately, I did not test there personally, as I had schooling commitments. My two team-mates did test there. It was quite positive. I’m excited to getting back in the car after the Spa incident. Hopefully, we get a good bunch of results and keep up the momentum before the last round in Barcelona.”
Benjamin Goethe, Thomas Neubauer and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer currently top the standings with 84 points and a top finish could see the Audi R8 LMS GT3 trio clinch the title before the final round in Spain. Al-Zubair and the Al-Manar Racing by HRT team trail the second-placed Nicolas Schöll, Alex Aka and Marius Zug by just six points.
The 4.574km German circuit hosted a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship until 2019 and also hosts German DTM races. It will be open to GT World Challenge Europe competitors for a paid test session from 14.00hrs on Thursday (September 1), before all administration and technical checks are carried out on Friday.
A free practice session runs for 90 minutes from 09.45hrs on Saturday morning and precedes another 90-minute pre-qualifying stint from 14.05hrs.
After sharing the weekend’s timetable with the GT4 European Series, Clio Cup and MitJet2L Trophy Italy, the first of three 15-minute qualifying sessions gets underway from 09.45hrs on Sunday, with each driver taking part in one stint apiece.
The three-hour Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe race is scheduled to fire into life from 15.00hrs.
