Ireland's Ryan Cullen has raced to victory with an assured drive from pole position in the first race of the second round of Season 8 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East at the Autodrome. For Saudi driver Bander Alesayi had a frustrating experience in Dubai after an incident in the second lap forced him to spin out to the back of the field. From the rear he made up three places to finish the race in a credible 12th place. Young driver Mohammad Al-Saud fought hard on his debut at the Dubai circuit, narrowly missing out on a podium position in the Porsche GCC Rookie category. Irishman Cullen took his second win of the season with ease and was untroubled throughout at the front of the competitive grid featuring 16 drivers from 12 different countries. Cullen eventually finished 0.563 seconds clear of Qatar-based driver Charlie Frijns who finished where he started the race in second. Third place went to surprise package of the championship, Al-Faisal Al-Zubair of Oman who surprised organizers and even himself to make the overall race podium for the first time, a remarkable feat for the rookie driver. There was a huge crowd, perfect warm conditions in Dubai and a tightly packed grid with only two seconds separating the top ten places in qualifying. But the race didn't quite live up to the excitement of the opening round. Unfortunately an incident involving early championship leader Dylan Pereira and Saudi Arabia's Bandar Alesayi saw the safety-car deployed for five of the twelve laps. Once the action got back underway there was little chance for overtaking. The top six positions were completed by Tom Oliphant of Britain in fourth, slightly ahead from a chasing pack which included Germany's Wolfgang Triller, who finished fifth and UAE-resident Bashar Mardini in sixth. Saudi driver Bander Alesayi flew away from his 6th place start on the grid, finding himself in second place behind Ryan Cullen coming out of the first corner. This unfortunately didn't last long thanks to the collision in the second lap. Alesayi continued the race and managed to climb back to 12th position.
