Aston Martin Middle East and North Africa ambassador Ahmad Al Harthy heads into today’s sixth round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit confident of a strong front-running challenge, after qualifying eighth fastest for the two-hour contest.
Producing a very competitive showing on Saturday, 1st August, the 33-year-old Oman Racing Team driver posted a fastest lap time of 1m26.804 seconds during his session to end the opening qualification run third fastest.
Team-mate Daniel Lloyd then went on to lap in 1m25.871 seconds during the subsequent period to deliver a combined effort of 2m52.675 seconds – equating to eighth on the grid for this afternoon’s contest which will be screened live on Motors TV.
Despite encountering a few small issues in the opening practice session on Saturday, which did limit the squad’s running in comparison to the competition, full focus in practice two went towards ensuring the No.2 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 was set-up as well as possible for qualifying.
Pleased with his own pace and satisfied with the overall result from the all-important grid determining run, Oman Air, Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Ooredoo, National Bank of Oman and Al Hashar Group-backed Ahmad is quietly confident going into round six.
“The car was perfect for qualifying, we were very close to our best performance of the year and to be P8 on the combined times, just eight tenths off the front row, is good – I’m satisfied with that”, said the Omani, “I’m feeling very confident with my pace, we had limited running in the first practice so in FP2 we concentrated on getting the car good for qualifying and the team did a great job.
“I think we’re stronger than quite a few cars in front of us on the grid, so we need to keep everything clean at the start and then take advantage of any opportunities. We know what we need to do and I think we have a very good chance of a strong result this weekend.”
Leading the Silver Cup classification going into this afternoon’s race, Ahmad and Lloyd are also fifth overall in the outright British GT Championship standings while the Oman Racing Team leads the way in the entrants’ title battle.
Following a brief morning warm-up, round six of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship will get underway at 13.30 (UK time) this afternoon with live coverage to be screened on Motors TV.
Provisional 2015 Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT3 Driver Standings: 5th Ahmad Al Harthy/Daniel Lloyd, 46pts
Provisional 2015 Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT3 Silver Cup: 1st Ahmad Al Harthy/Daniel Lloyd, 81.5pts
Provisional 2015 Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT3 Team Standings: 1st Oman Racing Team, 144.5pts
