|
Starting from the pole position, Anthony West riding a Suzuki bike won the first race of Qatar International Road Racing Championship in tricky track conditions. The QMMF Racing Team rider was leading the race from the start and despite of the windy conditions, he managed to finish in first position with a gap of 7.477 ahead of second classified, Bradley Smith with a Yamaha bike. |
The MotoGP British rider started from the second row of the grid and it took him some laps to get the rhythm to be in the front, but in the middle of the race, in the seventh lap he managed to get closer to the Australian riders, West and Cudlin who were leading the race. The defending champion, Alex Cudlin, starting in the second position in the grid was struggling all the race with West and Smith but he finished third.
The German rider Nina Prinz made an excellent start from the third position and was battling in the front group in the first part of the race but due to an electrical problem with her bike she had to retire in the seventh lap.
The Qatari rider Nasser alMalki with his BMW bike finished fourth.
The Losail Asian Road Racing Championship saw Indian rider Rajini Krishnan take the top spot while finishing seventh overall. India’s Deepak Ravikumar finished second, while Hungarian rider Nikolett Kovacs took the third position in LARRS category.
Trophies were given by Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiya, LIC General Manager and FIM Vice President Sultan al-Morraikhi (QMMF Board of Member) and Rashid al-Sulaiti (QMMF Public Relations).
Anthony West said: “I had a good feeling and I tried to keep my rhythm and stay on the track as there was a horrible wind all day. I am happy that I didn’t have to fight too much because I got a good gap form the rest.”
Second places Bradley Smith explained, “I had some clutch problems and my start was not good. I made a mistake in the first lap and run off the track so I lost time to be back. Then I had a good battle with Alex and I hope to resolve the problems in the clutch and be closer to West in second race.”
Alex Cudlin said, “The race was good, I enjoyed the battle with Bradley. At the beginning of the race I was slow, not good feeling with the front of the bike. It took me some laps to get into the rhythm but then Anthony was gone. The last two laps I lost a little bit and some mistakes make me finish in third but I am happy to race against riders of MotoGP and Moto2.”
In the race two of the day, West crossed the checkered flag again in the first position. The Australian rider felt very comfortable riding the Suzuki bike and managed to get a gap of 15.402 with Nasser al-Malki who finished in second place. al-Malki was very happy to be in the podium starting from the fifth position in the grid. The third position in the podium was for Mishal al-Naimi with a Honda bike.
Nina Prinz and Bradley Smith had some mechanical problems and had to retire in the middle of race two.
The next round for Qatar International Road Racing Championship will be from March 22 to 23.