Wednesday 18 / September / 2024
Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Maxime Martin celebrated a joyous return to the FIA World Endurance Championship podium at Fuji Speedway in Japan on Sunday, 15th September, with an absolutely outstanding performance to climb through the order to third place in LMGT3.
Taking their maiden FIA WEC silverware together back in April at Imola in Italy, the Team WRT trio has been striving hard to return to the LMGT3 podium ever since and during the weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji they delivered in style.
Oman’s Al Harthy qualified the No.46 car 12th on the class grid, the track not suiting the strengths of the BMW M4 in qualifying trim, but a fabulous race from all three drivers and an excellent strategy enabled the squad to finish the race only three seconds shy of second place, and just seven seconds adrift of the LMGT3 winner.
Remarkable performance brings long overdue podium for No.46
Al Harthy took the start of the race from the sixth row of the LMGT3 grid and after a terrific opening he quickly gained four places, scything into the top eight. He then took seventh prior to the appearance of the Safety Car due to an incident among the Hypercar class at the start of lap two.
During the opening hour of the race the Omani performed superbly and he concluded the first 60 minutes of racing in a very competitive fifth position, within 16 seconds of the LMGT3 lead. After the first round of pit-stops Al Harthy stayed aboard the No.46 BMW M4 and the progress continued.
Making no mistakes, and looking after the Goodyear tyres well, the OQ, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Omantel, Experience Oman and BMW Oman supported driver made his way into the podium placings and by the end of hour two he was an incredibly strong third, before then moving into second – a remarkable double stint.
Martin took over behind the wheel next and continued the podium challenge, closing on the race leading No.92 Porsche 911 and holding second place as the race reached the halfway point. After the third round of stops was complete, he was third and the bid for silverware began to be solidified.
Hour four provided the first mileage of the race for Rossi and he delivered some exceptional driving too. Running in eighth when initially taking the car over, he passed two rivals in one corner and took sixth before soon progressing back into the podium placings – ending hour four in third.
The Italian pushed on but as the penultimate hour of action neared its conclusion, Rossi was edged back to fourth by the No.54 Ferrari 296 of compatriot Davide Rigon. Pitting inside the final hour, Martin got back behind the wheel of the BMW and with 50 minutes to run he emerged in seventh before moving back into the top four as rivals started to take their last stops.
With 40 minutes to go Martin was within 15 seconds of the podium, the top three actually running nose-to-tail, and the hope was the lead trio would slow each other up defending, enabling Martin to make up chunks of time.
Lapping more than a second faster than the cars ahead at that point, with half an hour to go the gap had reduced to around eight seconds. Not putting a wheel wrong, Martin caught the third placed No.59 McLaren with just under 20 minutes remaining on the clock and on lap 184 he was alongside his rival – sealing the move to take third.
Just under five seconds shy of second position with a quarter of an hour to go, anything more looked unlikely with the pace of the new top three then pretty evenly matched. Martin did close some more before taking the flag in third – a fantastic return to the podium for the No.46 BMW M4.
Ahmad Al Harthy:
“What an unbelievable result – I’m really, really over the moon! This was one of the hardest races we had to do to achieve this result, by far it was a very, very challenging race but everybody drove extremely well. I’m delighted with the way I started the race and was able to overtake all those cars, that was crucial to being able to make our strategy work.
“Some of the Safety Cars and Full Course Yellows did work somewhat towards our direction, but others went against us. More importantly, everybody didn’t put a single foot wrong. It’s great to be back on the podium and celebrate with all of the sponsors and partners from Oman who attended the race, including the Ambassador to Japan, His Excellency Dr Mohammed Said Al Busaidi. I am so grateful for their support and delighted to see the Omani flag back on the FIA WEC podium!”
The season finale of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, round eight, will mark a return to the Middle East with a visit to Bahrain International Circuit on Friday, 1st November, and Saturday, 2nd November.
6 Hours of Fuji LMGT3 Race Result:
1st Davide Rigon / Francesco Castellacci / Thomas Flohr (AF Corse / Ferrari 296)
2nd Klaus Bachler / Joel Sturm / Aliaksandr Malykhin (PureRxcing / Porsche 911)
3rd Ahmad Al Harthy / Maxime Martin / Valentino Rossi (Team WRT / BMW M4)
4th Charlie Eastwood / Rui Andrade / Tom van Rompuy (TF Sport / Corvette Z06)
5th Michelle Gatting / Rahel Frey / Sarah Bovy (Iron Dames / Lamborghini Huracan)
6th Alessio Rovera / Simon Mann / Francois Heriau (AF Corse / Ferrari 296)
FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 Driver Standings (after Rd7)
1st Klaus Bachler / Joel Sturm / Aliaksandr Malykhin, 136pts
2nd Morris Schuring / Richard Lietz / Yasser Shahin, 90pts
3rd Augusto Farfus / Darren Leung / Sean Gelael, 85pts
4th Alex Riberas / Daniel Mancinelli / Ian James, 83pts
5th Ahmad Al Harthy / Maxime Martin / Valentino Rossi, 61pts
