Sunday 12 / April / 2026
Ahmad Al Harthy delivered an eye-catching performance on his return to the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Circuit Paul Ricard in France on Saturday, 11th April, to help Oman Racing by Century Motorsport secure a strong top six finish in the Bronze Cup battle.
Round one of the new GTWCE season, a six-hour ‘into the night’ race, began at 18.00 local time and Al Harthy produced a fantastic showing from the start as he moved the No.42 BMW M4 GT3 EVO up from ninth on the Bronze grid, taking the class lead midway through hour two.
In the end, the Omani and new team-mates Javier Sagrera and Calan Williams combined impressively on their first appearance together, concluding the opening race of the campaign with a strong sixth position result in Bronze.
Oman’s Al Harthy delighted with performance on full-time GTWCE return
Qualifying was conducted across three sessions on Saturday morning at the Le Castellet track, and the average of the times posted by Al Harthy, Sagrera and Williams was 1m55.217 seconds, which translated to ninth place in the Bronze class starting order.
Al Harthy, supported by prestigious partners OQ, Omantel, Oman LNG, the Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and BMW Oman, had the responsibility of taking the opening stint of the race and avoided any drama to slice through into sixth in Bronze, also gaining 10 overall positions.
Following an early Safety Car period, required after a lap one collision, the Omani continued to make excellent progress. Moving up into fourth in Bronze on the ninth tour, within another handful of laps he had broken into the podium placings and the No.42 BMW M4 then remained third as the first hour reached its conclusion – less than half a second shy of the second-in-class Aston Martin.
Both cars pitted nose-to-tail minutes later for the first stops of the race, and the Oman Racing by Century Motorsport mechanics turned the BMW around very quickly with Al Harthy remaining in the car for a double stint. While emerging from pitlane ahead of the Aston, with some other cars having pitted earlier and out of sequence the Omani was actually fourth in Bronze.
Soon back into third, Al Harthy didn’t waste any time in catching and then passing the No.991 BMW M4 and so climbed into second in Bronze around 20 minutes into hour two. At almost the same time, the class leading Mercedes-AMG pitted and so the Omani had the class lead for the first time.
With two and a half hours elapsed he continued to lead Bronze but with the No.91 Porsche 911 in very close company. Able to make his way through traffic very neatly, Al Harthy – with headlights ablaze as light properly started to fade – pulled away. Then, with just under four hours to go, he made the team’s second stop of the race from the Bronze lead, an exceptional double stint.
Sagrera climbed behind the wheel and when the order settled with three hours and 40 minutes remaining he was in the lead of Bronze, although then slipped to second behind the No.97 Porsche 911 as night skies covered Circuit Paul Ricard. Edged back to third by another of the Porsches before the halfway point of the race, when the class leader pitted Sagrera was elevated to second again.
Early in hour four the Spaniard pitted from second and Williams took over driving duties for his first stint of the race. The last couple of hours of the race were shared between those two, with Williams ultimately taking the chequered flag at midnight sixth in class.
Ahmad Al Harthy:
“It was a really, really good start to the race and I was very happy with the pace of the car – to make up positions from P9 at the start to the lead was very promising. The team did a great job in making sure we had a car that was very strong in the race, it was really nice to see us back competing at the highest level possible in GT3 racing in GTWCE.
"In terms of the overall result, P6 is the best we could do. We had to serve some longer pit-stops due to blue flag issues. That’s something we all need to look into, the organisers as well I guess, as it’s a new system which will take time to figure out. Generally, it’s a very respectable result and a huge thank you as always to all our partners and the whole team.”
Round two of the 2026 GTWCE Endurance Cup will take place seven weeks from now at Monza in Italy. Testing and free practice are scheduled between Thursday, 28th May, and Saturday, 30th May, with qualifying and the three-hour race on Sunday, 31st May.
GTWCE Endurance Cup Rd1 Bronze Cup Race Result:
1st Riccardo Pera / Antares Au / Loek Hartog (Rutronik Racing / Porsche)
2nd Marvin Dienst / Gabriele Piana / Rinat Salikhov (Winward Racing / Mercedes)
3rd Dries Vanthoor / James Kellett / Darren Leung (Paradine Competition / BMW)
4th Kiern Jewiss / Charles Dawson / Reece Barr (2 Seas Motorsport / Mercedes)
5th Dennis Marschall / Dustin Blattner / Lorenzo Patrese (Kessel Racing / Ferrari)
6th Ahmad Al Harthy / Javier Sagrera / Calan Williams
(Oman Racing by Century Motorsport / BMW)
