The start of the 600-lap race was waved off at 7pm on Friday as a packed grid of 30 teams took to LeMans-style start, and all eyes were on the dramatic duel out front, with the Batelco team winning by 10.416 seconds after almost 13 hours on track. They were also helped a bit by a couple of penalties that proved costly for their rivals.
Comprising drivers Mohammed Matter, Ramez Azzam, Vincent Fraisse and Mohammed Al Mutawwa, Batelco swapped the lead with CG numerous times, but it came down to an all-out sprint with strong driving by both teams after the last of the compulsory 18 pit stops were completed with 25 laps remaining.
Batelco’s final driver, Matter, matched the lap times of CG’s David Terrien for much of the last stint to maintain his winning margin, with both teams clocking near identical pairings of 1:10.06 and 1:10.08 second laps after 12 hours.
“The guys did a fantastic job,” said Batelco’s team manager Kumail Al Musawai. “They were on the pace and were consistent all the way throughout the night. They did a brilliant job on the strategy which put us in the best position to win.”
For first-round winners CG Racing, it was a case of missed opportunities for drivers Terrien, Rami Azzam, Piers Pakenham-Walsh and Alban Varutti on track.
“We were close the whole race, but we made some mistakes where we lost 25 seconds,” said captain Terrien after his final stint.
“We caught Batelco and took the lead with two hours to go and then we got another penalty. So we lost because of a few penalties which is never very nice. But it was fair and we have to accept, at this level of racing, a single mistake costs heavily.”
Proving the competitiveness of the series yet again, the top 10 qualifiers were covered by just 0.3 seconds, with the fastest 17 karts separated by less than a second.
Winners in the corporate class were CG Racing in fifth outright from Fly Emirates who finished 12th outright. The Nations Cup for teams comprised of one nationality again went to Lebanon’s CG Racing in fifth from the Russian LD team in seventh and the all-Indian ENOC-NH8 squad in eighth place overall.
