5 days ago
Points return for Al Harthy and Team WRT at Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo
Muscat – Oman's Ahmad al Harthy and his teammates – Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde – delivered a gritty and determined performance to secure a hard-earned top-10 finish at the Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo on Sunday, as the FIA World Endurance Championship entered its second half.
Contesting an uphill battle all weekend at Interlagos, the Team WRT trio and the squad maximised the performance available to them with the No.46 BMW M4 LMGT3 after overcoming a difficult qualifying on Saturday.
'I think it was a very strong race for us, we managed to make up so many positions throughout the six hours and to finish with a championship point makes all of the effort worth it,' said Al Harthy.
'We know we're not the most competitive car at the moment but hopefully things can change quickly for Austin.
'We executed a perfect race, I would say one of the best executed in terms of teams, so that's a very proud thing for us, and we all drove perfectly as well. Now we have a bit of time to analyse all of the data and hopefully have a more competitive car when we arrive at the Circuit of the Americas for the next round of the championship.'
Al Harthy took the start of the race, but after maintaining position initially, he was elbowed down to 17th place. Battling back with strong focus, he was back inside the top 15 with less than 20 minutes of the race elapsed and close behind the sister BMW. Both WRT cars gained two spots each shortly after and Al Harthy then made his first pit-stop from 13th before the end of hour one.
Van der Linde took over and when the action settled he was in 12th position, as the team's strategy began to unfold. Climbing through to fifth with one hour and 45 minutes completed, before the end of hour two OQ Group, Sohar International, Omantel, Oman LNG, BMW Oman, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and Experience Oman-supported Al Harthy returned to the driving seat.
Holding sixth position initially, and driving well around the 4.3-kilometre counterclockwise Interlagos track, he concluded his second run nicely inside the top eight as the differing strategies of the teams played out. Van der Linde took over later in hour three with the car in 10th place when he emerged, and the South African reeled off a series of great passes.
With three hours and 45 minutes in the book van der Linde had moved up into third and at the next stop Rossi climbed into the BMW for his first miles of the race. When the race order settled once more he held sixth place and after the team's fifth pit-stop, with just under 90 minutes to go, Rossi remained behind the wheel and emerged eighth in LMGT3.
Climbing into the top six as the strategies again mixed the order, van der Linde returned to the No.46 car with just half an hour remaining and ultimately finished in 10th position.
The FIA World Endurance Championship will now head to the United States of America for round six of the season, the Lone Star Le Mans at COTA in Austin, Texas, over the weekend of September 6-7.
