JEDDAH — At the end of the 5th and 6th rounds of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East which took place at Dubai Autodrome, Abdulaziz Al-Faisal stays on top of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East with a tally of 140 points, 12 points ahead of Nabooda Racing's Clemens Schmidt and 23 points ahead of the latter's teammate Karim Al-Azhari. The Saudi Falcons also brought more glory to the Kingdom by staying second in the team championship standings with 218 points, 27 behind leader Nabooda Racing. The 5th round saw a very exciting start where Abdulaziz started second behind Schmidt after trailing him by 0.498 seconds in qualifying. Abdulaziz's race was compromised due to a jump start by Nabooda's Karim Al-Azhari whose pace was slower than Abdulaziz and this delayed the latter, and on top of that Abdulaziz dropped to fifth place, after going wide of the track briefly. Abdulaziz managed to fight back to second though, with a powerful comeback. On the other hand Faisal Binladen had a storming start and climbed as high as third before dropping back to sixth by the end of the race, claiming valuable points for the team. Faisal is still working hard to regain his form after being away for some time from racing. The next day all drivers were determined to give their best before going into a long winter break ahead of the upcoming round at the Reem Circuit in Riyadh on Feb. 6 and 7. The qualifying session ended very close between Schmidt and Abdulaziz where Schmidt pipped Abdulaziz by only 0.068 seconds. The race was very close between the leaders as well, and Abdulaziz stayed close to Schmidt looking for a mistake from the Austrian. They both reached the finish line within 0.2 seconds adrift with Schmidt on top. On the other side of the Falcon's garage Binladen had a good start but had a minor incident at turn 3 of the first lap which led him to the back of the pack. Binladen fought back to regain five lost places, and collected some valuable points for the Saudi Falcons in the championship. “Thank God I won the second place twice this weekend and in Dubai's double header, and this comes after difficult race in the fifth round. I feel satisfied that we are leading the driver's championship midway through the season and we will be looking at maintaining this lead while reverting. The championship is still tight and the 12-point lead counts for nothing since the championship is still young,” stated Abdulaziz after the end of Rounds 5 and 6. Saudi Falcons' Faisal Binladen said: “I have benefitted a lot from both Dubai rounds. Although I climbed into third and finished sixth in the first race, I believe that I still didn't show the real form. I am working hard to regain my standard and this will come with practice and more participation. I hope I will be raising my level at the next rounds at the Reem Circuit. I also congratulate my teammate Abdulaziz on maintaining the championship lead.” — SG
