Al Harthy and teammates look to reignite FIA World Endurance Championship hopes at Imola
Muscat – Oman's Ahmad al Harthy is aiming to bid for his first podium of the year in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship in Italy for the 6 Hours of Imola after a break of more than six weeks since the opening round in Qatar.
Producing excellent pace in qualifying and race trim during the championship curtain-raiser in late February, the Omani and Team WRT team-mates Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde were on course for a strong result.
Unfortunately, an issue with the No.46 BMW M4 LMGT3 harmed the pace they were able to run during the second half of the 10-hour encounter and they had to ultimately settle for an 11th-place finish.
Their early race pace performance in Qatar suggests they have a car and set-up capable of challenging for the podium and this weekend's six-hour race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari will be seen as a fresh start to the squad's season.
Imola, of course, is a very happy hunting ground for Al Harthy and Team WRT last year where a genuine bid for LMGT3 victory was only dashed by a late penalty. Nonetheless, Al Harthy, Rossi and then team-mate Maxime Martin still finished an excellent second.
Repeating such a performance this time around will be the focus for the No.46 squad, and the power of the challenge will be boosted by the tens of thousands of fans expected to pack the grandstands in support of their home hero Rossi.
As always, Al Harthy has unstinting support from his prestigious partners OQ Group, Sohar International, Omantel, BMW Oman, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and Experience Oman. Additionally, the Omani has, during the break since round one, welcomed new strategic partner Oman LNG to his portfolio.
'We can't wait to be back racing this weekend, and we're all really looking forward to returning to Imola, the scene of our best result last season in FIA WEC,' said Al Harthy. 'Last year's race was amazing, we had a great pace and were very close to actually taking our first LMGT3 win. There's no reason we can't be just as competitive this time around, we're all going to be pushing very hard to fight for the podium.'
'The main aim is to bounce back as strongly as we can after Qatar, things were going well and I was very happy with my triple stint at the beginning. Unfortunately the issue we had with the car meant we couldn't take the fight to the other teams later on, but this weekend is a fresh start in many ways and we're all determined to kick-start our championship.'
The 6 Hours of Imola will get underway at 1 pm local time on Sunday and all of the action can be followed at www.fiawec.com
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