Strong pace goes unrewarded for Amna and Hamda Al Qubaisi at Portimao

Emirati sisters Amna and Hamda Al Qubaisi closed out their debut season in the Ligier European Series with another strong performance in the season finale at Portimao, where the Team Virage duo showed frontrunning pace across the weekend, bouncing back from race one disappointment to drive superbly in race 2.

Photo credits: DPPI

Emirati sisters Amna and Hamda Al Qubaisi closed out their debut season in the Ligier European Series with an impressive performance in the season finale at Portimao. The Team Virage duo showed frontrunning pace across the weekend with Hamda less than a tenth of a second from securing pole position.

After a technical issue forced them to retire from race one, Amna displayed excellent racecraft in the opening stint, before a hard-charging drive from Hamda saw them finish as runners-up on the road in race two. However, a post-race time penalty for a pit stop time infringement dropped them to seventh in the final classification.

In their first season of prototype racing, the Al Qubaisi sisters have excelled despite facing a learning curve stepping up from formula cars. They arrived at the season finale sitting in third position in the JS P4 championship standings and the Team Virage duo were still in mathematical contention of claiming the title. Consistency has been the key to their success as the pair had only once finished outside of the points, while standing on the podium on three occasions.

At the previous round at Silverstone, the Al Qubaisi sisters achieved a season’s best finish of second in race two as they overcame changeable conditions on British soil. They now arrived at Portimao, another circuit at which they had limited experience of, targeting further strong results to close out a superb season for the Emirati duo.

The first practice session of the weekend took place on Thursday morning with both Amna and Hamda Al Qubaisi gaining valuable mileage. Although the session was interrupted by a red flag, the Team Virage duo completed 16 laps and set the seventh fastest time in the JS P4 class.

In free practice two on Thursday afternoon, the Al Qubaisi sisters improved as they completed 20 laps of the Portimao circuit. At the end of practice, Hamda Al Qubaisi topped the times in the JS P4 class as Emirati duo established themselves at the head of the field prior to qualifying.

Thursday’s action concluded with two qualifying sessions which were held back-to-back. The first session ran uninterrupted for the full fifteen-minutes with Hamda Al Qubaisi behind the wheel of the #88 Team Virage machine. Hamda showed exceptional speed through both sectors one and two as she held down provisional pole for the majority of the session. One last flying lap from Romain Boeckler dropped the Emirati racer to second position in the JS P4 class with just one tenth of a second covering the fastest three drivers.

After Hamda had set a quickest time of a 1:46.631, Amna took over the car for the second qualifying session as she targeted another strong performance. Amna built up her speed throughout the session and just like her sister, sector one was a particular strength. The session ended prematurely due to a late red flag with Amna’s quickest time of a 1:46.658 placing her in fourth position within the JS P4 class.

Photo credits: DPPI

The first race of the weekend took place on Friday morning with Hamda Al Qubaisi behind the wheel. Low track temperatures meant that generating heat into the tyres was of paramount importance during the two warm up laps before the race got underway. From the outside of the front row, it was a challenging start for Hamda as the inside line gained momentum into turn one. As a result, Al Qubaisi was shuffled back to fifth position at the end of the first lap.

As Hamda settled into her rhythm, she began pulling away from Luis Perez Cabello and therefore could focus forward on the two cars ahead. Although race leaders Maxwell Dodds and Romain Boeckler were beginning to extend their lead at the head of the field, Hamda was looking faster than both Andre Viera and Gregorio Bertocco ahead.

On lap four, Bertocco overtook Viera and now Hamda lined up a move on the Portuguese driver. As she looked to execute an overtake on lap five, contact was made between Al Qubaisi and Viera which spun the ASM Motorsport driver. Hamda therefore moved into fourth position and she was now chasing down Bertocco for a podium position in the JS P4 class.

On her first flying lap in clear air, Hamda was lapping faster than race leader Boeckler to underline her speed. A new overall fastest sector one time followed as Al Qubaisi was quickly cutting the deficit to the Iron Lynx by M Racing driver ahead. Just as Hamda was looking for a way through, her Team Virage machine slowed with a technical issue and she was forced to retire to the pits. It was an unfortunate end to a race in which Hamda had showed great promise in her opening stint, while lapping on-par with the overall racer leaders.

Following good work from the Team Virage crew, the Ligier JS P4 machine was repaired for the second race of the weekend which took place on Friday afternoon. Amna Al Qubaisi got behind the wheel for her first laps of the day during the opening stint as the Emirati duo targeted a strong end to the season.

Photo credits: DPPI

As the lights went out, Amna made a good start as she battled with Iko Segret for fourth position. After running side-by-side, Segret pulled clear through the middle sector before the safety car was deployed to retrieve the car of Andre Viera which had stopped out on track. When the race resumed, Amna was looking to gain ground as she attempted a late-braking move into turn one. With the tyres not quite up to temperature, she ran wide on the exit of the corner and lost out to Gregorio Bertocco.

Colombian driver Lucas Medina then found his way through with Amna briefly settling into seventh position. Teammate Jude Peters was now behind and the British racer was applying significant pressure. Nonetheless, Amna initially defended her position superbly while both Team Virage drivers were now losing ground to the group ahead.

On lap six, Peters briefly claimed seventh position before Amna utilised the powerful slipstream effect on the main straight. Completing a stunning pass around the outside of turn one, Al Qubaisi was back in seventh position. Peters was determined to move back ahead and the positions were traded several more times before the safety car was deployed on lap eight. With the Ligier JS2 R machine of Henrique Cruz requiring recovery, the race was briefly neutralised.

When the race resumed, Amna was again looking to gain ground and after Mathis Poulet ran wide on the exit of turn eight, Al Qubaisi was into seventh. A mistake was then made by Bertocco at turn one and this allowed Amna to inherit sixth as the Italian driver lost momentum. Now behind Peters once more, the Team Virage pair resumed their battle and Amna pulled off another superb move, this time at turn 11, to move inside the top-5.

Al Qubaisi and Peters then ran side-by-side to start lap 12 with the British racer again moving ahead. This lost Amna some momentum of her own and now Ruben Hage was looking for a way through. The ASM Motorsport driver then began his own side-by-side duel with the Emirati racer. After Amna came out on top, she began to pull clear of Hage and this coincided with the opening of the pit window. Amna pitted at the first possible opportunity and handed over to sister Hamda for her stint.

After rejoining the race following the mandatory stop, Hamda was immediately on the pace as she set competitive sector times on her out lap. As she began her first flying lap, Michael Bulzacchelli spun at turn three with the LR Motorsport driver rejoining just ahead of the Emirati racer. At the conclusion of the pit cycle, Hamda ran in sixth position and she was now applying significant pressure to Bulzacchelli ahead.

As the drivers began lap 19, Hamda got an excellent run down the main straight and she pulled off a superb overtake at turn one. Al Qubaisi did a nice job to negotiate the JS2 R machine of Noe Da Cunha while completing the overtake, with the Les Deux Arbres machine rejoining the race after serving a drive-through penalty. Hamda was quickly able to open out a margin to Bulzacchelli as she set the fastest middle sector of any driver on lap 19.

Hamda’s pace was exceptional in the early stages of her stint as she was regularly matching race leader Maxwell Dodds, while she was catching the next group of cars ahead at a significant rate. On lap 21, Hamda overtook newcomer Sebastien Kawpeng and with Romain Boeckler pulling into the pits to retire, Al Qubaisi was now in third position. Teammate Vic Stevens was now the next driver ahead and Hamda was catching the Team Virage machine by up to two seconds per lap.

On lap 23, a new personal best time of a 1:47.302 saw Hamda reduce the margin to less than half a second while Al Qubaisi was once again the fastest driver on track. Following a smart move to the inside of turn five, Hamda passed Stevens for second and quickly pulled out a sizeable advantage. On lap 25, Hamda was again the overall pacesetter and despite the margin to race leader Dodds standing at over ten seconds, Al Qubaisi was pushing hard to close down the gap.

Two laps later, she set the overall fastest time through the middle sector, despite the tyres being past their best, to demonstrate her exceptional pace. Hamda was regularly two seconds per lap faster than the majority of the JS P4 field in the closing stages as she took the chequered flag in second position, less than seven seconds behind Dodds, following a phenomenal stint. A post-race penalty of 41 seconds was subsequently issued to the team for not complying with the minimum mandatory pit stop time, therefore dropping the duo to seventh.

It was an excellent performance to end to the season for the Al Qubaisi sisters who bounced back from race one disappointment to drive superbly in spite of the post-race penalty. Despite being newcomers to endurance racing in 2025, the Emirati duo have adapted superbly and taken significant strides forward to end the campaign as consistent frontrunners.