Motorsport: Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair resumes his quest for Porsche Supercup glory in Austria

Spielberg: Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair resumes his quest for glory in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at the Red Bull Ring, near Spielberg, in Austria this weekend.
The Porsche GT3 drivers were last in action at the Monte-Carlo Grand Prix over five weeks ago and Al Zubair is keen to put a premature retirement from that race firmly to the back of his mind as the series heads to Austria.
“I think this will be another weekend when I will be learning a lot,” said FZ Racing’s Al Faisal, who is a member of the experienced Lechner Racing Middle East team.
“This is a new track for me. I have never been here before and I will only have 45 minutes to learn it before we start the qualifying session.
“It will be a tough one for me. I have seen the weather forecast and it looks as though it is going to be very wet. I have not driven the car in the wet before. Hopefully we get a positive result after this.
“We did a test in the car at one of the circuits and I have been keeping my fitness levels up. Now I’m looking forward to getting back to racing.”
The Omani’s teammate Michael Ammermüller currently leads the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup standings after three races. The German has a maximum 60-point score, following two victories in Barcelona and his Monaco success.
Norway’s Dennis Olsen is eight points adrift in second and Great Britain’s Daniel Cammish is four points further behind in third. Al Zubair is classified 18th of the 28 registered drivers in his first full season of international racing.
The weekend’s racing takes place at the Red Bull Ring, which was founded as the Österreichring and hosted the FIA Formula One Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years between 1970 and 1987. It was later rebuilt and renamed as the A1 Ring and again hosted the highest echelon of circuit racing from 1997 to 2003.
The circuit was then acquired by Red Bull’s Dietrich Mateschitz and rebuilt. Reopened in May 2011, it hosted DTM races and Formula One returned in 2014.
Al Zubair is a Red Bull athlete and is relishing the opportunity to race at a circuit owned by his working partner.
The weekend’s 45-minute practice session for the Porsches gets underway at 1645hrs on Friday. Qualifying is scheduled for 1225hrs on Saturday and the GT3s take centre stage on the 4.236km race circuit for a 16-lap race at 1130hrs on Sunday.