Alex Fontana's 2026 season got underway with a thrilling battle for the podium at the Michelin 24H Dubai, the opening round of the Creventic-organised 24H Series. The Swiss driver shared the Tsunami team’s #79 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) with Johannes Zelger, Fabio Babini and Daniel Gaunt, competing in the GT3 Pro/Am category. This was Fontana’s second appearance in the 24H Series at the United Arab Emirates circuit, following his debut in 2025.
After excellent free practice sessions, which saw the car top of the overall standings, the crew tackled the three qualifying sessions required by the regulations. Fontana took to the track in the final phase, securing 7th place in class with a time of 1:57.004. After calculating the average times of all drivers, the team qualified 8th in the GT3 Pro/Am class.
Fabio Babini was chosen to start the Dubai 24 Hours and maintained 20th place overall in the early stages, avoiding any problems. Alex Fontana took over from Gaunt with 21 hours to go, managing to climb back into the top 10 overall and 2nd place in the Pro/Am class thanks to a race pace matching that of the leaders, before handing the car over to Zelger.
Fontana’s second stint began in the middle of the night, with the #79 Porsche ilying in 5th place in class. The Tsunami crew continued to enjoy a smooth race throughout the night, allowing the car to remain in contention for the class podium. Fontana was back behind the wheel for another two hours on Sunday morning, before handing over to Babini who had the honour of bringing the car home. The quartet finished the race in 14th place overall and 4th in the Pro/Am class, narrowly missing out on a podium finish that had long been within the team’s reach.
This brought to a close an extremely positive Dubai 24 Hours for Fontana, who was able to showcase his potential and lay encouraging foundations for the forthcoming season.
Alex Fontana
“We showed great potential in one of the most competitive editions in the history of the Dubai 24 Hours. During free practice, we showed that we could be competitive in the overall standings, while in the race we were always in contention for the class podium. In such a long race, imaximizing your strategy is fundamental and I believe we did a good job of exploiting our potential to the full. This was the team’s first 24 Hours race with Johannes and Daniel and I’m happy to have contributed to this good result for the Tsunami team with my experience alongside Fabio, a great way to start 2026.”
“We showed great potential in one of the most competitive editions in the history of the Dubai 24 Hours. During free practice, we showed that we could be competitive in the overall standings, while in the race we were always in contention for the class podium. In such a long race, imaximizing your strategy is fundamental and I believe we did a good job of exploiting our potential to the full. This was the team’s first 24 Hours race with Johannes and Daniel and I’m happy to have contributed to this good result for the Tsunami team with my experience alongside Fabio, a great way to start 2026.”