Oliver Webb, Yelmer Buurman, Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Hubert Haupt won the 10th running of the Dubai 24 Hours for the Black Falcon Mercedes team.
In a race that was marked by high attrition and a total of 12 lead changes, the Black Falcon Mercedes led 550 of the 604 laps it completed.
The quartet came to the fore on Friday evening after the team's sister car retired following a crash by Khaled Al Qubaisi, who shared driving duties with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Bernd Schneider and Andreas Simonsen.
British team RAM Racing made a successful competition return by finishing second with its Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, driven by Tom Onslow-Cole, Adam Christodoulou, Thomas Jager and Cheerag Arya.
Third place overall and victory in the GT3 amateur class went to UAE-based team Dragon Racing, with Mohammed Jawa, Jordan Grogor, Matt Griffin and Rob Barff finishing on the same lap as the RAM Racing Mercedes, two laps down on the winning car.
British teams completed the top five, with the KPM Racing Aston Martin driven by Paul White, Jonathan Adam and Stefan Mucke in fourth overall and third in the GT3 Pro class, and the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN entry of Florian Strauss, Ricardo Sanchez, Ahmed Bin Khanen, Nick Hammann and Gaetan Paletou in fifth overall and second in GT3 Am.
Optimum Motorsport won the GT4 class with its Ginetta G55, driven by Euan Hankey, Bradley Ellis, Adrian Barwick and Salih Yoluc.
The race was the start of a new era for the 24H Series, which now has official FIA International Series status.
The calendar includes two more 24-hour races at Paul Ricard and Barcelona and three 12-hour races at Mugello, Zandvoort and Brno.
Results
24 hours of Dubai
1 Black Falcon 2 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 604 laps 2:00.320
2 Ram Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 600 laps 2:00.536
3 Dragon Racing 1 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:09.894 2:01.154
4 KPM Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 596 laps 1:59.546
5 Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R GT3 591 laps 2:01.872
Unnatee Gidithuri
Dipan Sur
