Khaled Al Qubaisi set the pace in the opening practice session for the 24H GT runners today at the Dubai Autodrome. The Emirati driver, who’s piloting the #3 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3 this weekend, posted a rapid 1:57.908 at the very end of Free Practice 2 (which was for GT cars only) to vault the car to the top of the screens.

His time made it a Black Falcon 1-2 in the Dubai sunshine, pushing the #2 sister AMG GT3 to second, his tour three tenths faster. Making it a Mercedes 1-2-3 was the #25 HTP Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3, which finished the hour-long session with a 1:58.258, Indy Dontje topping the A6 Am class.

Rounding out the top five in the session were a pair of Audi R8 LMS GT3s, the Mucke Motorsport crew leading Optimum’s, 0.45 and 0.47 off the best time respectively.

Fastest of the non-A6 GT3 runners was the leader of the SPX class in the session, which in the end was the #87 GDL Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo, with a time of 2:02.545 by Rory Penttinen, good enough for 21st overall.

Top of the GT4 class meanwhile, was the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4, which ended up 49th overall, its best time set by Darryl O’Young, a 2:10.484.

Before the GT-only practice session was the opening session of the weekend, reserved for the TCE runners in the event.

The best time in that session was set by the #229 SP3 class Century Motorsport Ginetta G55, Jon Barnes lapping the Autodrome in 2:08.961. His time was 1.2 seconds faster than the #278 CWS Ginetta which ended up second. Third in the running order was the #216 Modena Motorsports Seat Leon, which topped the TCR class with a very competitive 2:10.496 lap.

Both sessions to open the track action at Dubai were clean, with no Code 60s needing to be called. The only notable drama came in the first session for TCE runners, when the yellow flags had to be brought out for the #212 Stanco&Tanner Motorsport by Autorama Wetzikon Seat Leon, which stopped at Turn 15 with a technical issue.

Next up for the runners is the first combined practice, ahead of Qualifying at 16:00 local time.