Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing battled to fifth at the 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas (COTA), in Austin, Texas Sunday after a number of running issues.

During a dramatic six hours, the team suffered tyre problems, an incident in the pit-box and their No.88 Porsche 911 RSR even caught fire when refuelling during the second pit-stop.

Despite the setbacks Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing were still able to protect their second overall position in the LMGTE Am class.

Al Qubaisi shared driving duties with David Heinemeier Hansson of Denmark and Kevin Estre of France behind the wheel of the No.88 Porsche 911 RSR. Regular driver Patrick Long of the US was replaced as he was doing duty in the Pirelli World Challenge.

The team started from second and quickly moved into first place after the first lap, before pushing for a fifth-place finish after gearbox issues with their car needing to be pushed into the pit-box.

“Another race to forget with a fire during refuelling, then a puncture followed by transmission malfunction which dropped us down the order,” said Al Qubaisi.

“The team had the pace to finish in P2 but it was not to be. We now need to get our act together for the next round.”

The team, now on 104 points, is just 33 points behind the overall leader and with rounds in Fuji (October 16), Shanghai (November 6) and finally Bahrain (November 19) still to come.