•    Mercedes-AMG squad TFT Racing to begin Michelin 24H DUBAI from GT3 pole
•    Benjamin Paque stars in breathtaking and unpredictable Top 10 Shoot-Out 
•    Red Camel-Jordans.nl on top in 992, Rabdan by Fulgenzi shade 992 AM class pole
•    Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini takes tight GTX pole, Cerny BMW heads GT4
•    SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche pole in TCE-TCX, Toyota of TG-RR top TCE-TC

 PAQUE HOLT SICH BEI PREMIERE DES TOP-10_SHOOT-OUT FÜR TFT RACING DIE POLE-POSITION BEI DEN MICHELIN 24H DUBAI

Dubai, UAE (16 January 2026):
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO squad TFT Racing will begin this weekend’s Michelin 24H DUBAI from a richly deserved pole position, after an outstanding single-lap performance from Benjamin Paque in the first ever ‘Top 10 Shoot Out’ in Michelin 24H SERIES history.

In a highly entertaining session for the fastest 10 cars from regular qualifying, Paque sealed the top spot on the GT3 grid, as well as class pole in GT3 PRO-AM, with a time of 1m55.597 seconds. His lap was 0.252 seconds faster than Pierre Kaffer was able to deliver in the Sainteloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, those two ending up well clear of the rest.

“I’m feeling great, so happy to be on pole”, said Paque, “I put in everything I had so I’m super happy. We worked together as a team, we had a good car, so thank you to my mechanics, engineers and my team-mates [Patrick Charlaix, Jordan Boisson, Marvin Klein] for the support. We’ll see what happens in the race.”

Starting third on the grid at Dubai Autodrome tomorrow will be the No.74 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 EVO, which was piloted by Benjamin Goethe in the Shoot Out. He ended up a mere 0.033 seconds quicker than Kelvin van der Linde in the No.669 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Ending traditional qualifying just outside the GT3 top 10, Paradine Competition’s Darren Leung, Ahmad Al Harthy and James Kellett secured the GT3 AM pole for the second year in succession in their BMW M4. 

Red Camel-Jordans.nl claimed pole in the 992 division, the trio of Fabian Danz and Rik and Luc Breukers securing the top spot on the class grid by 0.3 seconds on average times from the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) of Muhlner Motorsport’s Jiatong Liang, Jurriaan de Back and Paul Meijer. 

The battle in 992 AM was unbelievably tight, with Rabdan by Fulgenzi’s Christopher Zochling, Saif Alameri and Salem Alketbi taking class pole by less than three hundredths. Almost as close was the GTX class, Leipert Motorsport’s Don Yount, Manz Thalin and Brendon Leitch claiming pole by a mere 0.067 seconds in their Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2. 

Cerny Motorsport dominated GT4 with Florian Sternkopf, Ivan Krapivtsev and Joshua Bednarski easing to pole in their BMW M4 GT4 (G82). In TCE-TCX, SRS Team Sorg Rennsport earned pole in the No.127 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) of Azat Kalimullen, Ivan Ekelchik and Darian Donkel. 

Finally, in TCE-TC the all-female TG-RR trio of Rio Shimono, Miki Onaga and Aimi Saito achieved class pole with their Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO ‘B Spec’. Tomorrow’s Michelin 24H DUBAI, the 21st staging of the big race, is the third and final event of the Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy.

Sainteloc’s Stephane Tribaudini topped the Q1 times with a lap of 1m57.606 seconds in the No.18 Audi R8 – notably achieved with just a single flyer. Rinat Salikhov in the No.81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO ran him close, with a best just a couple of tenths shy, while Thomas Kiefer placed third in the No.27 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO another 0.2s back.

Times tumbled in session two where Joel Sturm set the initial Q2 pace in the No.10 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). Abu Dhabi qualifying dominators Winward Racing looked to try and repeat their Yas Marina performance of last weekend, briefly holding the top two on aggregate. 

Marvin Dienst put the No.81 Mercedes onto provisional pole, ahead of Luca Stolz in the sister No.16 car, but Stolz was the fastest in session with a time of 1m56.420 seconds. However, Elia Erhart set a lap of 1m57.591 seconds in the Sainteloc Audi R8 which split the Winwards on average.

Into Q3, just over half a second covered the top 10 so a great battle was in store to find out who would progress to the ‘Shoot Out’. As a week ago though, the two Winward Mercedes-AMGs locked out the provisional front row with Matteo Cairoli on top in the No.81 – a best of 1m56.532 seconds leading to 1m57.193 seconds on average times. Maro Engel in the No.16 was just over a tenth adrift.

Sainteloc ended regular qualifying third on average and fastest in PRO-AM, Kaffer in the Audi, with the No.777 Al Manar by Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 coming through to fourth in the hands of Dennis Marschall. Prior to the start of the ‘Shoot Out’ later in the afternoon, though, the Ferrari lost its place in the top 10 after having its Q1 times deleted due to a technical infringement. 

This meant the No.74 Optimum McLaren was handed the berth and Benjamin Goethe made the most of the chance with a lap of 1m56.533s. His brother Oliver Goethe looked to have taken provisional pole in the No.88 Dragon Racing Ferrari, but his time was disallowed and the same fate befell Alexey Nesov in the Pure Rxcing Porsche and Loek Hartog on the No.10 Herberth Porsche.

Paque in the TFT Mercedes, though, made no mistakes as he topped the session a couple of tenths faster than Kaffer. Last to run were the two Winward cars, but they couldn’t make an impression and ended over a second shy of pole.

Before any representative times were set in Q1, red flags flew after a car tagged the barriers at Turn Seven. The session resumed with 11 minutes on the clock and the quickest first flyer was set by Louis Perrot in the No.910 Seblajoux Racing car – a time of 2m01.035 seconds. 

Into the final half of the session Danz had a spin which prevented him from trying to improve on his time of 2m03.029 seconds in the Red Camel-Jordans.nl car. Even so, he ended up third behind Muhlner’s Liang who was a full second quicker with lap of 2m02.021 seconds.

Rik Breukers climbed aboard the Red Camel car for Q2 and delivered a time of 2m00.064 seconds to hoist the No.909 into provisional pole position. Although much slower than Breukers, Enzo Joulie was still able to just eke ahead on average times in the second half of the session in the No.910 car.

Perrot, doubling up his duties in the No.888 Seblajoux Racing Porsche, impressed once again to take the car to 992 AM class provisional pole in third overall on average. He was four tenths adrift of Breukers’ session best. 

For Q3 Meijer got behind the wheel of the Muhlner car and was quicker than Luc Breukers in the Red Camel Porsche early on. Robert de Haan, meanwhile, lit up the timing screens with a sensational 1m59.921 seconds to elevate the Tierra Outdoor Racing by FACH into an aggregate second. Meijer was able to deliver a time of 2m00.494 seconds later on, to pull Muhlner into second on average, 0.3 seconds ahead of the Tierra Outdoor car but still adrift of Red Camel. 

Rossa Racing’s Rossa LM GT set the early GTX pace with Evgeny Kireev’s lap of 2m01.980 seconds, but before the halfway point of Q1 Andrzej Lewandowski moved to the top by setting a time of 2m01.248 seconds in the GT 3 Poland Lamborghini Super Trofeo EVO2. 

In session two, the Rossa came to a halt midway through after a spin for Ismail Akhmedkhodjaev and so red flags were flown. At the time of the cessation, Jack Mitchell topped GTX in the Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT2, having just set a lap of 1m59.547 seconds – but this was then annulled.

Mitchell, therefore, only had time for a single lap in order to try and move back onto provisional pole and he delivered in style, posting an excellent 1m59.566 seconds. Thalin, in the Leipert Lamborghini, moved to second on average ahead of the similar GT 3 Poland car. 

Going into Q3, a mere 0.042 seconds split the three lead contenders and so a great battle was in store with Nico Prost driving the Ginetta, Leitch in the Leipert car and Gustaw Wisniewski at the wheel of the GT 3 Poland Lamborghini.

Leitch took control with a terrific first lap of 1m58.991 seconds, opening a gap of 0.3 seconds on aggregate to the Team CMR Ginetta, but with six minutes to go Prost delivered a 1m59.067 seconds effort to close on average to within only 0.005 seconds. Leitch responded, though, with a fabulous 1m58.804 seconds to stretch the gap to just over seven hundredths to ensure pole.

In GT4, Sternkopf produced a time of 2m10.113 seconds in the opening session in the Cerny BMW to head the class by 1.7 seconds from the SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 of Stephan Epp. The dominance of the Cerny entry continued in Q2 and Q3, the squad ultimately ending up well clear of the No.427 Porsche. 

The Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO ‘B-spec’, driven by Aimi Saito, topped a very competitive first session for the TCE class cars – ending less than a tenth of a second ahead of the SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) of Kalimullin. 

In session two the No.127 Porsche, now with Donkel driving, moved a full second clear of the TG-RR Toyota on average. Ekelchik then took over the Porsche for Q3 and delivered a time of 2m09.607 seconds to seal pole for TCE-TCX just under a couple of seconds faster on aggregate than the Toyota, piloted in session three by Rio Shimono, which took TCE-TC class pole.

The final race of the Middle East Trophy season, the twice-round-the-clock Michelin 24H DUBAI, will get underway at 13.00 local time tomorrow, Saturday, 17th January, and will conclude at 13.00 on Sunday, 18th January. Creventic Motorsports TV will show the race live via YouTube with links on the official www.24hseries.com website.