Mercedes AMG 1-2-3 in the Dunlop Dubai 24hrs

Dunlop durability proven in the desert heat as a new distance record is set

KONTICH, 16 januari 2011 - The 7th running of the ‘Dunlop 24hrs of Dubai’ race took place on 13/14 January and after a tense strategic battle, AMG Mercedes SLS cars claimed the top three positions. German Black Falcon claimed victory, its four drivers Khaled Al Qubaisi, Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Thomas Jäger having completed a total of 628 laps (3,384.92 km) to establish a new record distance in the race.

Second and third places were clinched by the Heico Motorsport AMG Mercedes team, with Bernd Schneider, Maximilian Buhk, Christiaan Frankenhout, Max Nilsson and Andreas Zuber finishing second from the team with the sister car consisting of Bernd Schneider, Kenneth Heyer, Andreas Simonsen and Rodolfo Gonzalez.

Last year’s winning team, the Schubert BMW team, saw its drivers Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Faisal Binladen, Edward Sandström, Jörg Müller and Claudia Hürtgen with the BMW Z4 in contention for a podium finish for most of the race, but debris in the air intake with some three hours remaining made them drop to fourth, where they finished.

Last year’s winning team, the Schubert BMW team, saw its drivers Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Faisal Binladen, Edward Sandström, Jörg Müller and Claudia Hürtgen with the BMW Z4 in contention for a podium finish for most of the race, but debris in the air intake with some three hours remaining made them drop to fourth, where they finished.

Tyre supplier Dunlop uses the event to promote the durability of its high performance tyres, and is delighted with their tyre performance across a diverse range of cars in one of the world’s most demanding events. Every competitor uses Dunlop tyres in this event.

This event is one of the most important endurance racing events in the world, combining the intensity of famous sportscar races such as the Spa and Le Mans 24hrs with the added challenge of high temperatures throughout the entire race. Even at night, the track temperature remained over 31 degrees centigrade, with daytime track temperatures of 41 centigrade.

Many of the front-running teams were finding that, despite the high temperatures, intense battles and consistently high speeds, one set of Dunlop Motorsport tyres would produce peak performance for over 90 minutes. This is equivalent to one full Grand Prix distance – on just one set of tyres.

Carlo Lusser, who was the driving the highest placed Porsche 911 GT3, praised the Dunlop performance “The durability is good and the consistency is fine, We are achieving nearly 50 laps per tyre set, equating to over 1h 40m of running on a set of Dunlop tyres”

Firdos Avari, Project Manager from the Dunlop Motorsport design and development team stated: “We are delighted with the tyre performance in a very challenging event. We have had absolutely no performance issues at this event, which is incredible when you consider that 70 very diverse models of car, with over 250 different drivers using over 20 different specifications of Dunlop tyres. There is no other race in the world where we experience such consistently high track temperatures for 24 hours”.

Dunlop is renowned for their success in endurance racing. In addition to being the most successful tyre manufacturer at the Le Mans 24h race, with 34 outright wins, Dunlop is also the Official Tyre of the Silverstone and Barcelona 24h races and the reigning champions in the American Le Mans Prototype and GT categories. The Dubai 24 hours kicked off an incredible schedule for Dunlop Motorsport. The team will be supplying racing tyres to over 500 different racing events during the 2012 season.


Photos from the event are available from the media section of www.24hDubai.com.


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