TFT Racing’s Benjamin Paque has scored an upset pole position for tomorrow’s Michelin 24H Dubai, after triumphing in the inaugural Top 10 Shoot-Out at the Dubai Autodrome this evening.
Paque, who went sixth of the 10 runners in the Shoot-Out, set a 1:55.597 aboard the Pro/Am-entered #28 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, going almost one second clear of the rest of the field at that point.
Of the four cars which followed, only Sainteloc Junior Team’s Pierre Kaffer threatened Paque’s time, with the veteran setting a 1:55.849 aboard the #18 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Once his final challenger, Winward Racing’s Marvin Dienst, dropped 1.101 seconds to Paque in the first sector, the Belgian was free to celebrate.
“I’m so happy to be on pole!” Paque exclaimed. “I gave it everything I had. We worked together with the team, so we had a good car. Thanks to my mechanics, engineers, teammates for the support.”
Benjamin Goethe qualified third, and best of the GT3-Pro runners, in the #74 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo with a 1:56.533. The McLaren was a late addition to the Shoot-Out, after the #777 AlManar Racing by Dragon Ferrari 296 GT3 was disqualified from qualifying due to not being in accordance with the technical regulations.
Fourth went to Kelvin van der Linde in the #669 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, ahead of the #16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Luca Stolz, and Dienst’s #81 entry.
Winward was the final team to run in the Shoot-Out, after finishing 1-2 in this afternoon’s regular qualifying session with Stolz setting the best individual lap and the #81 Mercedes-AMG leading on average times, but the German outfit failed to replicate this performance come the evening. Dienst in particular will be disappointed, as following his slow Sector 1 he dropped only 0.035 seconds to Paque across the rest of the lap.
The second WRT BMW, the #27 of Christopher Haase, qualified seventh, with the German catching traffic in the form of Pure Rxcing’s Alexey Nesov at the end of his flying lap.
Nesov, Oliver Goethe, and Loek Hartog all had their Shoot-Out laps deleted due to track limit infringements, meaning the #92 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari and championship-leading #10 Herberth Motorsport Porsche will start at the tail end of the Top 10 tomorrow.
Of those who missed out on progressing to the Top 10 Shoot-Out, the most disappointed will likely be the #4 Grove Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, which wound up 15th overall after Jules Gounon had a pair of flying laps in Q3, both of which would have comfortably put the car through, disallowed due to track limits.
In GT3-Am, defending winner Paradine Competition qualified in 12th overall with its #992 BMW, after Ahmad Al Harthy, Darren Leung and James Kellett combined to set an average lap time of 1:57.931.
The #11 HOFOR Racing Mercedes-AMG and #69 Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport Audi completed the Am top three, with the #87 Origine by CC Porsche which led after each of the opening two sessions slipping to fourth in the final part.
33 of the 34 GT3 entries competed in all three parts of qualifying, with the exception being the #56 Scuderia Praha Ferrari, which sustained damage to a wishbone on the right front corner during Q1.
In 992, Red-Camel Jordans.nl scored pole position with an average lap time of 2:01.434 for its #909 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992). Mühlner Motorsport’s #921 Porsche was second, 0.364 seconds behind, with the #962 Tierra Outdoor Racing by Fach entry completing the top three.
992 Am honours went to the #971 Rabdan by Fulgenzi Porsche, which qualified 8th in 992, and only 0.025 seconds ahead of the #924 Red Ant Racing entry.
Leipert Motorsport secured GTX pole position with its #710 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2, after Brendon Leitch overhauled the #795 Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT2 piloted by Nico Prost in the final part of qualifying.
The #445 Cerny Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 claimed GT4 pole position, whilst TCE-TCX was topped by the #127 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS. TC pole position went the way of Toyota Gazoo ROOKIE Racing, and its #107 Toyota Supra GT4 Evo ‘B-spec’ – featuring a crew of stars from Japan’s all-female Kyojo Cup series.
QUALIFYING RESULTS >>> GT3 | 992 | TCE/GT4/GTX
The 2026 Michelin 24H Dubai begins at 13:00 GST tomorrow.
Images © 24H Series
