Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO partner team Winward Racing made a sensational start to its 2025/2026 Michelin 24H Series Middle East Trophy campaign during qualifying last night for the 6H Abu Dhabi, claiming a front row lock-out at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Rinat Salikhov, Gabriele Piana and Marvin Dienst, in the team’s #81 car, performed faultlessly in the field of 30 GT3 cars by delivering a three-session average time of 1:50.476 seconds to claim pole position for round two of the Middle East Trophy – repeating the team’s pole-winning performance in Abu Dhabi last season.
Maro Engel, Daan Arrow and Sergey Stolyarov in the sister #16 Mercedes-AMG were similarly impressive, just over a tenth shy, while TFT Racing’s Jordan Boisson, Marvin Klein and Benjamin Paque made it an all Mercedes-AMG top three and also claimed GT3 PRO-AM pole position.
“It’s been good fun, the team gave us a great car, it was a pleasure to drive, and I’m happy we are one-two”, said Winward Racing’s Dienst, “It’s going to be difficult [tomorrow] of course, it’s a long race as always, but the Mercedes-AMG is strong with tyre management with a long run so let’s bring it home and hope for a good one!”
Completing the top six were Herberth Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Antares Au, Huub van Eijndhoven and Loek Hartog, the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Anthony McIntosh, Dan Harper and Parker Thompson and the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Thomas Kiefer, Brendon Leitch and Nicolas Stati. Optimum Motorsport’s #39 McLaren GT3 EVO took GT3 AM pole.
In the other classes, Red Camel-Jordans.nl will start the race from 992 pole position. The team snatched the top spot on the class grid by a mere 0.071 seconds, with drivers Fabian Danz and brothers Luc and Rik Breukers in the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992). The squad was locked in a great battle throughout with EBM’s Josh Berry and Alessandro Ghiretti.
ARMotors by HRT Performance sealed 992 AM class pole with its trio of Steven Gambrell, Ryan Naicker and Igor Sorokin, while a dominant showing in GTX delivered class pole for the Ginetta G56 GT2 of Team CMR – shared this weekend by the duo of Mike Simpson and Jack Mitchell.
Championship leaders of GT4, Cerny Motorsport, will start the race from pole in class with a new trio of Florian Sternkopf, Ivan Krapivtsev and Joshua Bednarski in its BMW M4 GT4 (G82). Finally, in TCE-TCX the class pole position was taken comfortably by asBest Racing’s Usmaan Mughal, Dylan Pragji and Marco Grilli in the team’s Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982).
The Michelin 6H Abu Dhabi, which has attracted a bumper grid of 60 cars, will begin at 15.00 local time today. You can watch the race live at Creventic Motorsports TV on YouTube or through the link at www.24hseries.com.
Image courtesy of 24H Series
