1600: The #30 Ram Racing Mercedes called in for a random weight check by the organisers.
1603: Stuart Hall just out of the Gulf Racing Lamborghini: “It’s pretty warm at the moment, but we’re just trying to do the maximum time in the car at the moment. We got caught out stopping just before the Code 60 so we’ve effectively lost a lap.”
1604: Right-rear suspensions failure for the #1 Stadler Motorsport Porsche (last year’s winner) with Engelhart at the wheel, proceeding back to the pits slowly and carefully.
1612: Problem for the #152 Boutsen Ginion Maserati Trofeo car – it’s in the garage.
1614: It’s a Black Falcon 1-2 and Mercedes 1-2-3 at the moment, with Haupt in the #2 leading Schneider in the #3, with Karim Al-Azhari holding third in the #10 GT Russian Mercedes. Miguel Ramos now fourth in the #19 Corvette. Max Braams leads the A6-Am runners in ninth overall, driving the #67 GDL Racing Mercedes. Cup Class is being led by the #45 Forch Racing Porsche, with the #160 Alfab Aston Martin the top SP3/GT4 runner in 32nd overall.
1620: Ramos pits the Corvette from fourth for fuel and a driver change, meanwhile the #930 Porsche, which suffered contact and a spin earlier, is being recovered to the pits after stopping on track. Al-Azhari also pits the #10 GT Russian Mercedes – its second of the race so far.
1623: Running fifth at the moment is the #33 SPS Mercedes SPS of Valentin Sebastian Pierburg. Elsewhere, Ramos reports: “Very hard work, a lot of traffic, which I’m not used to. Really hard time but it’s going well. Our first hope is to finish the race – if we do that I think we can be top five.”
1626: Schneider pits from second to hand the #3 Black Falcon Mercedes to Khalid Al-Qubaisi, who takes it in for fuel. The veteran German says: “We’re still not happy with the balance of the car – it’s switching from under to oversteer – and there’s a lot of traffic, too. It’s hard work but also a lot of fun.”
1629: Now Haupt is in at the wheel of the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes from the lead. He gets out and hands the car to Abdulaziz Al-Faisal. Simultaneously, the Black Falcon team manager is called to the race director – possibly for a pit infrigement. Haupt says “We had a good start so I got in in the lead. The car is fantastic, easy to drive, everything’s perfect, the tyres are good.”
1631: Having taken over from first-stint driver Stefan Mucke, Johnny Adam takes the slighly out-of-sequence KPM Aston Martin into the overall lead, 13 seconds up on Al-Faisal’s Mercedes.
1635: Otto Klohs has got the polesitting #12 Fac Auto Tech Porsche up to fourth overall, although the car has only stopped once, like the KPM Aston.
1646: Adam Christodolou (#30 Ram Racing Mercedes) reports “Everyone seems to be on a different strategy, so everything should pan out in a couple of hours’ time. Cheerag is doing a good job, staying consistent and out of trouble. Everything’s going to plan at the moment, and at least the random weight check is out of the way. We’re in discussions and hopefully I can be part of the team for the remainder of the season.”
1649: GT Academy Europe winner Gaetan Paletou currently leads the A6-Am class in the RJN-run Nissan GT-R, ahead of class rival Mohammed Jawa in the #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari.
1653: Johnny Adam heads to pit road from the lead as we approach the three-hour mark. Cup class leader the #87 Porsche also pits, while Adam will hand the Aston Martin over to Paul White.
1659: The very attractively liveried purple-and-orange #120 Peugeot 207 getting some trusty endurance-racing gaffer tape applied to the front-left wheelarch in the pits.
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