INDIANAPOLIS (USA): Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair teamed up with Raffaele Marciello and Augusto Farfus to finish third overall in their Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 at a rain-hampered Indianapolis 8 Hours presented by AWS in America at the weekend.
Severe weather, lightning and torrential rain affected the famous race at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it ended under a yellow flag.
The first four hours featured some fascinating racing action with Farfus and Al-Zubair running strongly in the Pro class and Marciello able to pass Luca Stolz and fend off Kelvin van der Linde to take the lead before the onset of lightning and torrential rain triggered an extended red flag.
Race strategies then came into play for the closing stints, only for the weather and heavy rain to intervene again. The pit strategy helped van der Linde and the second Team WRT crew were able to take full advantage with no time available to Marciello under full power to regain the positions lost.
Van der Linde opted to take on fuel immediately and Marciello stayed out a lap longer and lost out. Just two laps of actual racing under the green flag took place on the 14-turn road course in the final four hours because of lightning and thunderstorms rolling through central Indiana.
Overall victory duly went to the Team WRT BMW trio of Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts and MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.
The result and third place for Al-Zubair, Marciello and Farfus enabled Team WRT to clinch a first GT3 manufacturers’ championship for BMW.
Maro Engel, Tom Kalender and Luca Stolz finished second in their Team GMR Mercedes-AMG.
Al-Zubair, Marciello and Farfus had been fourth quickest in the free practice session with a best lap of 1min 23.361sec and then Marciello had topped the times in Q1 with a best run of 1min 23.072sec.
The crew were third in the Pro class in Q2 and eighth in Q3. With the three sessions combined, they qualified for the race in third place behind the Team Lone Star Racing and Team GMR Mercedes’.