JEFFREY Schmidt and Pepe Oriola triumphed yesterday in their respective series, held as part of the 2016 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Schmidt showed why he was crowned the new champion last season in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East after winning his first support race yesterday.
Schmidt took the chequered flag in a total race time of 20:54.518. He was 5.745s ahead of runner-up and teammate Zaid Ashkanani, while Dennis Olsen claimed the final podium step after completing the race 11.265s back.
Ashkanani had earlier won pole position for the race with a best lap of 2:04.485 during qualifying.
All three were also the first three in the gold category.
In the silver class, Wolfgang Triller was first, followed by Bahrain’s young talent Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla Al Khalifa. Prince Saud Al Faisal was third.
The bronze was claimed by Rob Frijns, while Bahrain’s Shaikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa and Cengiz Oguzhan completed the podium placers.
Chequered
Ashkanani also won pole in 2:04.879 for Race Two, which is scheduled to be held today, starting at 3.30pm.
In the TCR International Series, Oriola claimed a season-opening victory after steering his Seat Leon to the chequered flag in 22:25.883.
Ex-Formula One driver Gianni Morbidelli in a Honda Civic was runner-up 2.372s back, while James Nash, also in a Seat Leon, took the final podium place 3.219s adrift.
A field of 18 competed in the race, with Bahrainis Shaikh Salman bin Isa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Hussain Karimi, both in Seat Leon Cup Racers, classified 15th and 16th, respectively.
Race two is scheduled for today at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile, two hundred valuable prizes will be up for grabs for race fans seated along Bahrain International Circuit’s (BIC) Main Grandstand shortly prior and during today’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
For the third successive year, BIC is holding its hugely popular “10 Every 10” raffle, wherein10 fantastic prizes will be given out every 10 minutes from4.45pm until the end of the 57-lap night race.
The raffle is exclusively for those seated along the Main Grandstand. Winners will be announced from 4.45pm onwards, so fans are advised to hurry and get to their seats even before the 6pm start of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The long list of prizes includes brand new, high-end electronic devices. Among them are Samsung S7 smartphones, Samsung S7 Edge, Samsung Note 5, Samsung View, iPhone 6S 16GB, iPhone 6S Plus 16GB, Huawei Mate 8, Huawei Honor 5X, Huawei Honor 3C, HTC M9 Plus, HTC Desire 626 LTE, Xiaomi mi note, Xiaomi mi4i, Elephone Trunck P8000, Fitbit Charge WRISTBAND, Fitbit Charge HR WRISTBAND, Lava Pixel V2+, LG G3 Beat LTE, Redmi 2 Enhanced and a Redmi Note 2.
Winners will be identified by their seat numbers; therefore, they must be in their seat in order to claim their prize. Don’t miss out on this opportunity and make sure you are seated for the duration of the raffle.
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