German youngster Janne Stiak achieved a complete sweep at the UAE doubleheader of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East. After his two victories in Dubai last week, he also made it to the top step of the podium twice in round 4 of the 2024/2025 season at the famous F1 Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi and extended his lead in the Championship to 47 points ahead of James Wallis. 

After two days of testing, the field of 18 Porsche 992 cars went into free practice on Saturday morning, and Stiak already set the tone for the rest of the weekend with the fastest time, ahead of  Saud Al Saud from Saudi Arabia, who also lead the ProAM and GCC class, with Brit Angus Whiteside in P3.  Italian Alessandro Giannone, a newcomer in the series, topped the Masters category.

In qualifying for race 1, the 17-year-old German was fastest again, while Caleb Sumich from Australia, who only joined the series last weekend in Dubai, also made it to the front row, with British driver James Wallis in P3. Khaled Alahmadi from Saudi Arabia in P4 overall lead the ProAM and GCC class, while Giannone topped the Masters category just one hundredth of a second ahead of Bankcy from Japan. 

Race one saw Stiak, who had “worked on my starts during the testing days, as they were not so good recently,” this time get a better getaway, so he was in the lead from the beginning. But as the safety car had to come out in lap 5 due to a collision between Krister Andero and Saif Al Ameri, he lost the advantage he had already gained. “And after the restart it was not easy to get into the rhythm again, but fortunately after a few laps I managed to get really focused again and bring the victory home with a consistent drive.”

The German crossed the finish line ahead of James Wallis and Caleb Sumich, who was able to celebrate his first podium finish in the series. Saud Al Saud in P5 overall was the winner of the ProAM and GCC categories ahead of his Saudi teammate Khaled Alahmadi, who had lost out a bit at the start, and German Soeren Spreng. Alessandro Giannone, not eligible for points as a guest driver, finished P9 overall topped the Masters class on track, but later received a five-second penalty for multiple track limit violations. So Bankcy from Japan inherited the class win, ahead of Giannone and Petr Brecka from the Czech Republic. 

In the second qualifying on Sunday for race 2, Stiak secured his second pole position. Even a Red Flag with a bit less than five minutes to go and put a lot of pressure on everybody in the final part of the session could not stop the German.  Caleb Sumich accompanied him on the front row, with British driver Angus Whiteside in P3. Khaled Alahmadi in P4 overall led the ProAM and GCC class. Italian Alessandro Giannone topped the Masters category with an impressive P5 overall. 

The opposition made it kind of easy then for Stiak, who could pull away in front while the others were fighting each other behind him. James Wallis, who had been caught out in qualifying partly due to the Red Flag, had to make up ground from P6 on the grid: “I didn’t have as good a start as usual, but I was able to use a few overtaking opportunities quite in the beginning,” said the Brit, who overtook Caleb Sumich already on lap 3 for the second position. But Sumich was promoted to P2 after the race, when Wallis received a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while overtaking.

Khaled Alahmadi in P5 overall was the winner of the ProAM and GCC categories ahead of Soeren Spreng and Shihab Al Habsi from Oman. Saud Al Saud, who had a few laps in qualifying deleted due to track limits, had to start from P14 and only was able to gain three places but was still able to keep his lead in the ProAM and GCC championships ahead of Alahmadi.

Alessandro Giannone in P9 overall topped the Masters class, with Bankcy from Japan in P2 and Krister Andero from Sweden, who used a spare car after the crash on Saturday, in P3. Bankcy now took the Masters championship lead from Bulgarian Mike Mim, who had a rather unlucky weekend in Abu Dhabi. Victory in the team category this time went to Proton Huber Competition, while Saudi Racing is still leading the championship.

With two-thirds of the season done and round 5 of the series only coming up from 11th to 13th of April in Bahrain as a support event to the F1 GP, Robert Lechner, Series Head and Promoter, was very happy about the Abu Dhabi round and the UAE doubleheader in general: 

“We always feel very welcome here - thanks to Porsche Middle East & Africa FZE, Porsche Centre Abu Dhabi Ali & Sons, and Yas Marina Circuit for all their support! Again we saw very good racing over the weekend. Now everyone has a little bit of time before we will be back on track at Bahrain International Circuit in April!”