The first day of the Dubai Motorsport Festival on Friday saw a mix of new faces and the ‘usual suspects’ on the top step of the Dubai Autodrome podium during a day of close racing which included the NGK Series, UAE Sportbikes, Porsche GT3 Cup Middle East, Radical Middle East Cup and Formula Gulf 1000.
In the sportbikes championship, reigning champion Mahmoud Tannir finally broke Abdulaziz Binladen’s stranglehold on the 600 Class, by taking top spot on the podium aboard his Triumph.
Tannir said: “We have had a good pace right from the morning session. I was comfortable and even in qualifying I could have gone faster but I was happy with P2 on the grid. The focus was to have a good start and stay ahead of Abdulaziz. We managed to do this early on in the race.”
Binladen in contrast struggled early on, eventually succumbing to engine problems and coasted to a halt after three laps.
Ducati rider Joe Oxley finished second in the 600 Class, with Michael Collins taking third place on his Yamaha. In the GT3 cup, Abdulaziz Al Faisal won a nail-biting race, edging out Skydive's Saeed Al Mehairi with Fahad Al Gosaibi finishing third.
Saeed Bintouq took top spot in the Formula Gulf 1000 race, with Abdullah Kabbani second and third place going to Joel Young.
In the Radical Middle East Cup, Scot Balsdon and Oliver Smith teamed up to take top honours from Aschkan Abdul Malek and Romain Lutter crossing the line second ahead of Salman Al Khater in third.
Guillaume Simonnet, driving a SEAT, scored his maiden victory in Class 1 of the NGK Racing Series with Petr Valek second and Marcel Kusin third.
