Round one of the 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series turned out to be a challenging and frustrating event for Ahmad Al Harthy and the Oman Racing Team at Monza in Italy on Sunday, 12th April, with problems in qualifying and the race masking the squad’s undoubted potential.
Initially, the clear pace of the No.44 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 was shown in the opening qualifying session with team-mate Daniel Lloyd posting the sixth fastest Pro Cup time and ninth overall. During the subsequent run, though, the team was badly affected by a red flag stoppage.
Ultimately meaning the Oman Racing Team car would start the three-hour race from 20th position on the combined grid, a major test awaited the Oman Air, Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Ooredoo, National Bank of Oman and Al Hashar Group-backed squad but the opening stint went well for Lloyd.
Slicing his way through the order, the British racer gained several positions before handing the car over to Ahmad for his stint but at the pit-stop there was a costly delay caused by an issue with the air jacks.
Losing chunks of time, Ahmad rejoined the race outside the overall top 30 and so had a mountain to climb to try and minimise the damage to the team’s hopes. Frustratingly, the Omani then noticed an issue with the handling – thought to be a possible puncture – and so pace was limited until the next stop when he handed the car over to Jonny Adam for the final hour.
Aston Martin works driver Adam joined the track in 34th position overall but managed to haul the No.44 machine into 28th place before the finish, 17th in the Pro Cup. Although nothing like the kind of result the team had hoped for, or expected, the unhindered performance during first qualifying means there is plenty to be positive about ahead of the next round in May.
“We started off in the wrong place at the wrong time in qualifying unfortunately, the red flags caught us out so we were on the back-foot from the beginning”, said Ahmad, “We had very good pace with Dan [Lloyd] in the first stint, we were climbing through well, but then we lost important time at my stop with the air jacks.
“I rejoined the race a long way down from where we should have been but then we had a bit of a problem with some pick-up or something. It felt like a slow puncture or something like that, so we had to be cautious. When Jonny [Adam] took over for the last stint, he did his best to gain some places and we were competitive.”
Post-race, the overall race winners and Pro Cup winners were excluded from the results with the final outcome pending an appeal by the team in question. The Oman Racing Team, therefore, has been re-classified in 27th overall and 16th in the Pro Cup.
Next stop on the Blancpain Endurance Series schedule is a visit to Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in the UK over the weekend 23rd/24th May. Before then, Ahmad will return to action in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Rockingham in the UK on 2nd/3rd May.
“Blancpain is the strongest and biggest GT championship in the world, so as soon as you have a couple of problems it really does have a big impact”, he reflected, “We’re positive, though, as we learned so much and we’re looking forward to the next round. First it’s British GT, though, and we are determined to do well there.”
