Exciting young Omani sportsman Al Faisal Al Zubair delivered a memorable season-best performance as the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East resumed in Dubai on Friday, 27th January, where the 18-year-old scorched to a magnificent second place overall in round five of the 2016/2017 campaign.

Continuing the incredible form he displayed last time out, also at Dubai Autodrome in December, the rapid Porsche driver bagged his second outright podium of the season and also dominated the GCC Rookie Class, taking his fourth win, and Silver Class, claiming his second victory thus far.

Al Faisal certainly started as he meant to go on during officially timed practice on Friday morning with an exceptional top three overall performance, a showing he almost managed to match during qualifying for round five.

Despite being edged to fourth fastest overall, when Gold driver Dylan Pereira snatched outright pole position on his final lap of the session during the closing seconds, Al Faisal comfortably held on to the all-important GCC Rookie Class and Silver class poles to get the event off to a superb start.

Making a terrific launch at the beginning of race one, the Muscat racer rocketed into third place and then swept into second on the opening lap. Despite some early pressure from behind, Al Faisal was never realistically threatened and didn’t look back on his way to a richly deserved runner-up spot. Notably, he was little more than one tenth of a second shy of the fastest lap of the race.

“It’s been a really good day”, said the Omani after race one of the weekend, “Qualifying P4, I was very happy with that, and the race went extremely well. I got a good start, took P3 right away, then there was a bit of a battle and I took P2.

“At the beginning there was quite a bit of pressure, but Ryan [Cullen] ahead was quite quick so I just tried to keep up with him. I’m very happy with P2 and I think my first [outright] win is more realistic now at some point this season. For race two it will be tough as we used our new tyres today, but I’ll still be trying as hard as I can.”

Al Faisal’s excellent round five result has provisionally elevated him into the top four of the main Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East title race. In the GCC Rookie Class and Silver Class he has enhanced his advantage at the top of each championship.

Round six of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East is scheduled to take place at 15.40 (local time) later today, Saturday, 28th January. Live timing will be available HERE

Source. Marc Orme/Photo. Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East