Monday 18 / November / 2024
Mexico City: Al Faisal Al Zubair season of global international Porsche racing draws to a conclusion this weekend with the final two rounds of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup, which are being held in conjunction with the F1 Mexican Grand Prix at the 4.304km Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City.
The Omani driver has been keeping busy since the ninth round of the Porsche series in Monza and achieved good results at two of the final three rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany at the Nurburgring and Hockenheim circuits in the early autumn.
But the talented rookie, who is working with Lechner Racing this season, wants to finish the international season on a high note before returning to his native Middle East for a short winter season of racing in the Middle East championship.
“I’m very excited to be in Mexico for the last rounds of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup and I want to finish the season in a good way before we head back to the Middle East,” said FZ Racing’s Al Faisal.
“The circuit is new for all of the drivers, so we will all start from a clean sheet of paper and it will be interesting to see how I compare with the others on level terms so to speak.”
All the equipment needed to stage the final two rounds of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup left Stuttgart airport in a 747-400 cargo ‘plane on Monday. Twenty-eight Porsche 911 GT3s and 65 tonnes of equipment were loaded and stacked to strict guidelines with the help of special double-deck rigs and then transported, via refuelling in New York, to Mexico. The equipment arrived in Mexico City early on Tuesday morning.
Heading into the final two rounds of the series, Al Zubair’s Lechner Racing teammate Michael Ammermuller leads the championship by just three points from the recently crowned Porsche Carrera Cup Germany champion Dennis Olsen.
Australia’s Matt Campbell is a distant third and faces a challenge from Great Britain’s Dan Cammish and Poland’s Robert Lukas for the final spot on the points’ podium. Al Zubair holds 17th of the 35 registered drivers this season.
Mexico was an integral part of the FIA Formula One Championship calendar for years and returned to the timetable in 2015, after a 23-year absence. The circuit is named after the famous racing brothers Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez and has been redesigned and rebuilt to exacting FIA safety standards.
The first practice session will take place for the Porsche entrants at 16.00hrs on Friday afternoon (0100hrs Oman time) and precedes qualifying on Saturday morning at 1120hrs (2020hrs Oman time).
Race one takes centre stage from 1510hrs (2310hrs Oman time) on Saturday and the final round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup gets the green light at 1030hrs (1930hrs Oman time) on Sunday morning.
Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup Overall Standings (after round 9): 17. Al Faisal Al Zubair 19 pts.
Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup Rookie Standings (after round 9): 8. Al Faisal Al Zubair 19 pts.
