Paque Scores Dubai Pole as BMW, Porsche Trade Roar Test Honors

Overview

• TFT Racing’s Benjamin Paque sealed the Michelin 24H Dubai pole with a 1:55.597 in the inaugural Top 10 Shoot‑Out, with Pierre Kaffer’s Sainteloc Audi second and Benjamin Goethe’s Optimum McLaren third after Dragon Racing’s No. 777 Ferrari was excluded from qualifying.
• Extensive track‑limits deletions altered the shootout order, with laps scrubbed for Oliver Goethe, Loek Hartog and Alexey Nesov, while Winward’s Mercedes entries dropped from topping the average qualifying to fifth and sixth in the shootout.
• Paradine Competition swept the pre‑race warm‑up 1‑2 led by James Kellett in the No. 992 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, as only 18 of 34 GT3s turned laps and the polesitting TFT Mercedes logged a 1:59.436 with Marvin Klein.
• At Daytona’s Roar Before the 24, Porsche locked out Session 1 with Felipe Nasr quickest at 1:36.327, before Sheldon van der Linde put BMW M Team WRT on top in Session 2 with a 1:36.742 as JDC‑Miller’s customer Porsche finished second in both runs.
• Roar running featured two red flags in Session 2 and limited early mileage for Acura, while GT pace-setters were Spencer Pumpelly’s Magnus Aston Martin in Session 1 and Corey Lewis’s Gradient Ford Mustang in Session 2.