Monday 28 / September / 2026
MUSCAT: The Al-Manar by Dragon Racing Team’s Al Faisal Al Zubair and Dennis Marschall overcame the handicap of a lack of top speed on one of the fastest race circuits in the world to earn a top-10 finish at the demanding Monza GT Open 500 in Italy on Sunday.
The duo struggled to get maximum top end performance out of their Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO at the ‘Temple of Speed’ but were able to move up from a qualifying position of 12th to finish 10th in the last of the endurance races in the 2026 International GT Open.
Oman's Al Zubair said: “We finished the last race of the programme (International GT Open). We came into the weekend on the back foot knowing that we struggled with the BoP (Balance of Performance). There was only so much we could do.
“At the start of the race we gained a few positions but once the race got going, with the top speed we had and the straight-line speed we were losing, there was only so much we could do. It was not the best weekend. Hopefully, we can be more competitive at the next one.
“I had Dennis Marschall with me, who is the GT World Challenge champion and one of the top drivers, and he also struggled the whole weekend. I guess that goes to prove that we both struggled with the car more than anything.”
Al Zubair and his 30-year-old German team-mate took it in turns to drive a pair of stints apiece in the 87-lap race on the 5.793km circuit, with Al Zubair running from the start before handing over to Marschall for his first stint. Al Zubair then took the wheel for his second session and Marschall brought the car safely to the finish in 10th place.
Victory in the endurance race went to the Scuderia Villorba Corde Lamborghini duo of Leonardo Moncini and Rodrigo Testa. The Greystone GT McLaren of Zac Meakin and Dean Macdonald came home second.
The Al-Manar by Dragon Racing duo took advantage of Thursday’s private tests before taking to the circuit for a pair of free practice sessions on Friday.
The two Team Motopark Mercedes dominated the opening practice session with respective quickest laps of 1min 45.629sec and 1min 45.686sec. The Al-Manar Racing by Dragon Ferrari ran for 21 laps and posted its quickest time on lap 20 – a 1min 46.699sec tour.
Al Zubair and Marschall were able to shave 0.144 seconds off that time during the second free practice session, when they ran the Ferrari for 28 laps. Team Motopark’s Christian Mansell and Maximilian Götz topped the times in that session.
All-important qualifying was split into two 25-minute stints on Saturday. Al Zubair ran for 14 laps in the late morning and his best run of 1min 46.350sec came on his penultimate tour of the circuit. That put him into 13th place and 12th of the Pro runners.
Marschall took the wheel for the second stint in the afternoon and ran for a dozen laps with his best one of 1min 45.146sec coming on lap nine. He was 14th and 10th of the Pro entrants. With the two sessions combined, the duo lined up in 12th on the starting grid and 11th in Pro with pole position going to the Mansell and Götz in the Team Motopark Mercedes.
This season’s programme was cut short because some races in the Gulf region were revised or cancelled. Al-Manar Racing will announce its exciting 2027 race programme in due course.
