Ibrahim al-Abdulghani claimed pole position for today’s Qatar Touring Car Championship after registering the fastest time in the qualifying yesterday at the Losail International Circuit.
The second season of QTCC is organised by the Losail Circuit Sports Club and Qatar Motor Motorcycle Federation and is being held together with the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s Race of Qatar.
Al-Abdulghani, in Honda S2000, lapped a best time of 2:25.703 seconds under lights, edging out Abdulla Ali al-Khelafi, who timed a fastest lap of 2:25.997 in Toyota GT86. In third was Saadon al-Kuwari, who timed 2:26.040 also in Toyota GT86.
Al-Abdulghani, who is making his maiden appearance in QTCC, surprised the field with impressive run around 5.38km circuit.
The opening round of QTCC was expected to witness a strong competition with addition of new driver like al-Abdulghani, Nasser al-Kuwari and Mohammed al-Buainan. Today, the Race 1 will be held at 4:35pm, while the QTCC Race 2 is set to commence at 7:30pm.
 
Michelisz tops WTCC free practice
Norbert Michelisz made a perfect start to his bid to win the FIA World Touring Car Championship with the fastest time in Free Practice 1 at WTCC Race of Qatar.
The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team driver outgunned Rob Huff by 0.211s with a final-lap charge to boost his earlier advantage of 0.089s, at the Losail International Circuit.
Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Bjork, 6.5 points in front of Michelisz in the title chase, was 0.320s behind in third. Nicky Catsburg was fourth with four-time champion Yvan Muller fifth and 0.771s slower than Michelisz on his return to the WTCC in a factory Volvo.
“It’s a decent start but I was struggling with overall grip,” said Hungarian Michelisz. “I expected the circuit to be ‘green’ but it was a bit less grip than I expected to be honest. In the end it’s the same as always, everybody has the same issues with grip but it’s always nice to end up in the front. But I don’t think we should read too much into this because we still need to improve the set-up. It’s nice to be P1 and I hope we can continue like this through the event,” he added.
Britain’s Tom Chilton lost significant track time after a brush with a tyre barrier left his Citroen with front-end damage and a lengthy repair job for his Sebastien Loeb Racing team, while Esteban Guerrieri’s session was curtailed by an oil leak in his Honda. The Argentine nevertheless ended up as the best Losail International Circuit rookie in sixth position for the factory Honda team.
Daniel Nagy limped into the pits with a technical issue. Kris Richard stopped on track when his Campos Racing Chevrolet ground to a halt and had to be pushed into the pits by trackside marshals during a red flag period. Free Practice 2 gets underway at 21h15 local time.
 
Today’s Schedule
1:30pm: QTCC warm-up
2:30pm: WTCC qualifying 1
4:35pm: QTCC Race 1 (10 laps)
7:30pm: QTCC Race 2 (10 laps)
9:20pm: WTCC opening race (10 laps)
10:35pm: WTCC main race (12 laps)