Benjamin Mazatis against Valentino Rossi at the 24H Dubai

I'm starting 2023 with a bang! 😊 Very happy to announce that I will be competing in this year's 24 Hours of Dubai! 🏁🇦🇪 I'll be driving a 585bhp Audi R8 LMS GT3 🚗 and competing for overall victory with the @haas.rt team and my fellow drivers Frédéric Vervisch, Maxime Soulet, Mathieu Detry and Oliver Bertels.

This is a dream come true for me. 😊 I've been preparing very hard for this race since mid-October, spending several hours a day both in the simulator and in the gym. 💪🏼 Now I feel in the shape of my life and can hardly wait for it to finally start! 😄✌🏼

You can follow the race live on You Tube. The broadcast starts with the practice sessions on Friday, through qualifying, to the 24-hour race from Saturday 12:00 CET to Sunday 12:00 CET. 📺
Support me 😉!

You can also my latest press release where you can find more information.

Watch the full 24H Series Dubai mini-documentary for free directly on the 24H Series channel

All news from 24H Series Dubai can be found at 24H Seies and hankook 24H DUBAI

Live ticker

7 January

Training

8 January

9 January

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10 January

Absolutely speechless! The feeling of finally sitting in a racing car again 😄 and then driving a GT3 around one of my favourite tracks! 🚗💨 But we still have a long way to go. We will continue to work hard. First technical scrutineering tomorrow, then driver changeover practice and finally the parade on First Avenue. ✌🏼🏁

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11 January

Feel the need, the need for speed! 🚗💨
Race through the night in Dubai!

12 January

13 January

Night training and qualification

Interview

What a heartbreaker today💔 After a fantastic day in qualifying, we were P2 overall🏁 We were looking forward to a big showdown in the night quali for pole position. But unfortunately we were unable to compete due to technical problems. This means that instead of the fantastic starting position and the view from the front, we will have a lot of traffic ahead of us. But we have 24 hours to turn the tables. A big thank you to Haas RT and Audi Sport for the hard work and support! They will fix the car overnight and then we will leave our hearts out tomorrow and give it our all!!! Everyone else better check their mirrors!

14 January race! 🏁

3 hours have passed and we are in 1st place 🙏
Wish us good luck 🍀
24h Dubai 🏎 Top 3

15 January The race is over! 🏁

We congratulate the winners🏆: Team WRT (1st and 3rd places) and Herberth Motorsport (2nd place), as well as the class winners: FACH AUTO TEC (class 992), Dragon Racing (GT4), razoon-more than racing (GTX) and AC Motorsport (TCR).

Thank you very much, Haas RT Team! ❤️
Thanks for everything, guys! Amazing work! Unfortunately we didn't have the race luck you need to finish on the podium. The pace was definitely there!

I would like to say a few personal words after everything that has happened in the last week. First of all, it was an indescribable feeling for me to be back on the racetrack after not having sat or driven in a racing car for almost 2.5 years. And then even in a GT3 car! There were a lot of people who no longer believed that they would see me on a race track again. But life is not about giving up, it's about staying strong, keeping the faith alive and waiting for the hint of an opportunity and then being ready and taking it.

I had a good feeling right from the start and with every session and every metre I drove in the car, I felt more confident and was able to push more and more to the limit, improving my lap time step by step. I was very fast in the last practice session before qualifying and I'm very proud of my performance. Nevertheless, there are still small things I would like to improve for next time to become even better. I hope to be back in the race car soon and we are working very hard on that behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, that's when the drama began. Although we were so close to a potential pole, we ended up having to start the race from 43rd on the grid due to technical problems. But we showed our fighting spirit and I wrote on my social media channels: „Everyone should pay more attention to their mirrors“ and Frédéric Vervisch put it into practice with one of the best driving performances I've ever seen. My team-mates Maxime Soulet and Mathieu Detry performed just as strongly and put us in the lead!!! 😊💪🏼 But luck was not our best friend. Just at the moment our opponents had to pit while we had already made our stop, Code-60 came out, so they got a free stop and we dropped back. As we made our way back to the front, a puncture showed that it's always the race that makes you win. After 24 hours and some great battles, we ended up 5th out of 57 cars that started.

On the one hand, it's very special to finish in the top 5 at one of the biggest endurance races in the world. On the other hand, we were very fast all weekend and it was clearly not enough for this performance. All the great work and support from Audi Sport and Haas RT and the performance of us drivers deserved a podium. Big praise to everyone!

Finally, a big thank you to all of you who have been so supportive. I have received so many nice messages in the last few days. Thank you all! 🙏🏼

Here you can still my new press release read.