Brendon Leitch’s Leipert Motorsport has qualified on the front row for tonight’s 24H Dubai at the Dubai Autodrome, falling just 0.064 seconds short of the pole, which was claimed by Sainteloc Junior Team’s #18 Audi R8 GT3 Evo II.
A marathon three-hour session across three groups saw each team take to the track three times, with the average lap time across each session’s best setting the grid.
Leitch got behind the wheel of the #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 for the second run after Alban Varutti topped the opening session with a 2:00.015 on his final lap. The Kiwi was one of eight drivers to go under the two-minute barrier in his outing, his 1:59.594 keeping the team in contention for a good starting position.
Marco Mapelli completed the job for the team, his 2:00.006 putting them on the front row with an average time of 1:59.871, seeing them as one of only three outfits finishing under a two-minute average.
Matt Payne, competing for Grove Racing alongside Stephen and Brenton Grove, Jordan Love and Phil Keen in the #10 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, also enjoyed a solid outing, with the team qualifying tenth.
Payne was at the wheel for the third run, setting a 2:00.018 off the back of Love’s 1:59.942 in the middle session and Grove’s 2:02.544 in the opener.
Rianna O’Meara-Hunt joins Century Motorsport in a BMW M4 GT4 (G82) for the race, with the team qualifying third in the GT4 field.
Remarkably, all three drivers in the team set times with only 0.044 seconds between them, with O’Meara-Hunt’s 2:10.329 in the final session the fastest of the three.
The 24H Dubai begins at 9.30 pm this evening, with coverage free to stream on motorsport.tv.
