Tuesday 21 / July / 2026
MUSCAT: Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair and his British team-mate Ben Tuck delivered strong performances at this weekend’s two International GT Open races at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France.
They guided the Al-Manar by Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO to second overall in Saturday evening’s opening race from a similar position in qualifying and then moved up from 12th on the grid to finish fifth in the slightly shorter second race on Sunday afternoon.
Al Zubair said: “It was a very positive weekend and one we should be particularly proud of after Misano, where we struggled a little. To come here, qualify second and finish second overall was fantastic. We had a very competitive car yesterday and there are a lot of positives we can take away from the weekend to take to Monza, which is a longer race. It is important that we are comfortable with the car.
“I am very happy with the way it all went. I felt that qualifying this morning was a little unfair and I struggled with that after we had a major electrical power outage at the race track that affected the whole region. Starting at the back was a bit difficult in dirty air and the Ferrari is known not to be the best car in dirty air.
“But to finish P5 today, a podium and P2 yesterday and close to a win was very positive. No handicap for the next race but, with Monza’s long straights, we will hope to have a good straight-line speed to battle some of the other manufacturers, like BMW and Mercedes, for example. Motivation is high and we proved here that we can have the Dragon car on the overall podium.”
The Al-Manar by Dragon Racing team made a strong start in the first of Friday’s free practice sessions and a lap of 2min 04.043sec was sufficient to put the Ferrari fifth in the rankings from 30 cars in the field. The Ferrari ran for 24 laps, but the fastest Pro lap (2min 03.624sec) of the session fell to the Scuderia Villorba Corse Lamborghini.
Free practice two took place late on Friday afternoon and saw the Al-Manar duo post a best lap of 2min 04.437sec during 24 tours of the circuit. The Team Motopark Mercedes of Christian Mansell and Maximilian Gotz topped the Pro times with a best run of 2min 03.383sec.
Tuck excelled in the first qualifying session, the Briton carding a hot lap of 2min 02.153sec that was sufficient to put the Al-Manar by Dragon Ferrari at the top of the Pro standings and second on the entire grid for the opening 70-minute race.
The partnership for the 30-lap race worked well and Al Zubair took over for the second stint and the duo were able to maintain second place to the chequered flag just 1.069 seconds behind the triumphant ZRS Motorsport Porsche pairing of Pietro Armanni and Alex Fontana. Mansell and Gotz rounded off the podium for Team Motopark.
Cooler temperatures prevailed for the second qualifying stint on Sunday morning. Al Zubair ran for 11 laps and recorded a best run of 2min 02.487sec in a session where less than a second separated the leading 13 cars.
The Omani duly slotted into 12th on the grid and eighth of the Pro runners with the Elite Motorsport Ferrari of Tom Emson and Tom Lebbon topping the Pro times. A power outage in the area affected preparations but Al Zubair and Tuck gradually climbed through the field in the second one-hour race to finish fifth.
Victory in race two went to Emson and Lebbon from a Team Motopark Mercedes and the ZRS Motorsport Porsche.
The Al-Manar by Dragon Racing team concludes its three-race foray into the International GT Open at Monza in Italy on September 25th-27th.
