Audi ace Laurens Vanthoor has taken the chequered flag to win the Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai, clinching the race by five laps.
In a shootout for the new generation of GT3 machines, Vanthoor and co-drivers Michael Meadows, Stuart Leonard and Alain Ferte produced a near flawless display in the R8 LMS.
It was the first victory for Audi in the race with the Belgian WRT team saluting at their first appearance in the twice-around-the-clock event.
Both new generation Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GTs struck trouble through a combination of gearbox woes and contact.
Oliver Morley, Oliver Webb, Adam Christodoulou, Frankie Montecalvo and Abdulaziz al Faisal were second in their back-up SLS AMG after their primary car caught fire in the lead-up.
The Abt Audi driven by Christer Jons, Andreas Weishaupt, Isaac Tutumlu, Matias Henkola and Daniel Abt were third.
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A high profile casualty after being in a strong position was the Land Motorsport Audi R8 co-driven by Christopher Mies which was eliminated within three hours of the flag with a gearbox failure after earlier running out of fuel.
A nasty incident saw Matteo Cressoni (Ferrari 458 GT3) collect the Ginetta G50 of Thomas Martinsson.
Martinsson had to be cut from the wrecked Ginetta and is recovering in a Dubai hospital after suffering suspected broken ribs.
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