Muscat – Increased ballast and reduced power of Oman Racing’s No.69 Aston Martin Vantage GTE at Monza in Italy halted any hopes Ahmad al Harthy had of challenging for the LMGTE class pole position, in the qualifying for Sunday’s third round of the European Le Mans Series.

Omani racer Al Harthy, holding joint-lead of the LMGTE championship going into the grid determining session on Saturday, had the unenviable task of qualifying with, effectively, one hand tied behind his back.

As a result of Oman Racing’s LMGTE class race victory at Imola last time out, championship officials not only applied an extra 25kg of ballast to the Aston Martin for Monza but also took away an amount of power boost – both having a major bearing around the ultra-quick Italian track.

And it showed through practice and qualifying, with Al Harthy wringing every last bit of performance out of the car he could in the latter to post the sixth fastest time of 1m50.118 seconds (262.77km/h) but still ending the session some 1.2 seconds shy of pole position.

Initially closer to two seconds away from the pace after the first flying lap, Al Harthy, supported by the Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, OQ, Omantel and MHD-ITICS, was determined as he plugged away and closed the gap as best he could against the odds.

Knowing a very tough and challenging four-hour race, Al Harthy was his usual confident and professional self and said he, along with team-mates San De Haan and Marco Sorensen, would be giving it everything to deliver the best result possible for Oman Racing.

“I’m really happy with my performance in qualifying, it was one of my best qualifying sessions in this car and it was the best we could get out of it in the situation we’ve been placed in”, said Al Harthy.

“We’re carrying success ballast due to Imola and the championship position, which is really going to hamper our performance anyway of course, and now we have a BOP (Balance of Performance) change which means we are down on power compared to our competitors.

“So, overall, P6 is honestly the best we could have thought of coming into qualifying. The race will be very difficult, Monza is obviously a very fast circuit where power is key. Oman Racing always do the best we can in terms of capitalising on everything, such as strategies and teamwork, and hopefully we will come out with a reasonable result.”