Northern Ireland newcomer Charlie Eastwood joined the grid for race one of the fourth round at the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, surprising drivers to take first place on the podium. A Porsche Carrera Cup GB scholar, Eastwood flew into Abu Dhabi and onto the grid as a guest driver, taking pole position in qualifying by clocking a furious 2:13.611. Sharing the front row with title hopeful Charlie Frijns, Eastwood held his position to take the win with Cullen second and Frijns third. After qualifying in eighth on the grid, Saudi's Bandar Alesayi was determined to put the pressure on drivers ahead of him early on. Going into turn one, Alesayi tried to overtake rival Wolfgang Triller, but could not find a gap. A mistake later in lap one cost him his position to Salih Yoluc, but he kept his cool and regained eighth place back on the next lap. As the race developed, the gaps between drivers extended and Alesayi continued to try and close down Triller. The Saudi driver's persistence paid off and, in the last lap, he managed to overtake Triller to finish the race in seventh place, and second in the Silver Category behind Oman's Al-Faisal Al-Zubair. After Race 1, Bandar Alesayi said: "I had a reasonable start. In my first lap, I made a mistake and Salih capitalised on it — this also took me a while to regain my position and led to a big gap with the drivers ahead of me. Towards the final laps of the race, Wolfgang spun which I took advantage of and secured seventh place overall and second in the Silver category. "Last year, I was more than two seconds quicker than my best lap today. The car is tuned slightly different, but I hope that I get it all together tomorrow for better lap times and finish top in my category." Finishing ahead of the Saudi driver, Pereira showed his assertive side once more and pushed his way down the inside of Oliphant and Al-Zubair at the start, making his way from sixth to fourth. He also maintained his position until the checkered flag by building an impressive 4.8 seconds on the rest of the grid. Al-Zubair and Oliphant had their own race behind the leaders. Omani rookie Al Zubair dropped two places during the lightening start, ending in sixth where a patience Oliphant challenged on lap 10 for the fifth place finish. With only six-tenths of a second separating him and Oliphant, Al-Zubair showed fight until the end and took 1st place podiums in both Silver and Rookie categories. — SG
