Team Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing let slip an excellent start to the 6 hours of Nurburgring, slipping to sixth place having lead early on.

A spin caused by an LMP1 car damaged the front of the team’s 911 RSR LMGTE Am, causing them to lose time in the pits and slide down the standings.

Team Abu Dhabi had an almost perfect start to the day’s racing in front of 62,000 people as Earl Bamber moved from P5 to P2 in the early exchanges. However, his spin on lap six saw him hit by one of the Aston Martin’s and drop down to 7th.

Bamber entered the pit under a yellow flag, but the 24h of Le Mans winner came out fighting and posted the fastest laps of the race in order to catch up with the pack and eventually take the lead in the LMGTE Am class.

Khaled Al Qubaisi took over from Bamber and held the lead throughout his stint in the car.

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Khaled then handed over the Porsche to Christina Ried in P2, where the team was  then struck by the LMP1 in turn 10 halfway through the race.

The number 88 took some frontal damage and had to return to the pits for repair, where Abu Dhabi-Proton lost 10 minutess in the pits.

 “We had a great start to the race, the car was running perfectly, Bamber’s start was amazing and we really thought that the podium would be waiting for us this time, we proved how fast we are,” said Al Qubaisi. “But it looks like luck is not on our side this season – I can’t describe what happened to us as anything but bad luck.”