Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing will start from the first row in class LMGTE Am after Khaled Al Qubaisi powered the team to second place in qualifying for Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas (COTA), in Austin, Texas.
A fortnight after winning a historic first race at the 6 Hours of Mexico, Team Abu Dhabi-Proton have put themselves in good position to close the gap against AF Corse. Abu Dhabi go into the sixth round with 94 points in second-place, 35 points adrift of the leaders.
Al Qubaisi is sharing driving duties with David Heinemeier Hansson of Denmark and Kevin Estre of France behind the wheel of the No88 Porsche 911 RSR.
Regular driver Patrick Long of the US has been replaced as he is doing duty in the Pirelli World Challenge, where he is currently leading in the championship; hence the need to bring in Frenchman Estre as his replacement.
With track temperatures higher than the ones prevalent in free practices earlier, the conditions became tricky and challenging where tyre strategy came into play. The team had to choose been running on one set of tyres and going for pole position.
Eventually, Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing decided to sacrifice pole position and save their second set of tyres for the main race and try and go for the win in the main race.
Khaled Al Qubaisi said: “The track temperature during qualifying was higher than the morning session’s Free Practice. Everyone was much slower and many opted for two sets of tyres.
“We had to decide between going for pole and focusing on the race win and we chose the race win. We felt it was better to keep the second set of tyres for the main race and try for full points.
“This decision was taken keeping in mind that tyre wear here at COTA is high, so starting on new tyres in the main race will make a huge difference where we can gain an advantage of between 10 to 15 seconds over the stint.”
With four races to go, including the round in Austin, there is all to play for as far as overall title concerned.
While the primary focus for Team Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing will be to protect the second place in the championship, the team will nevertheless look to catching up with the leader in class.
Abu Dhabi-Proton have previously raced at COTA and are familiar with the 5.513km track configuration. The team finished second in class last year and third in 2014.
