Al-Naimi grabs first pole in Qatar Superstock

The opening round of the Qatar Superstock 600 revved off yesterday at Losail International Circuit with Mishal al-Naimi bagging pole position.In free practice 1, al-Naimi was the fastest rider with a lap time of 2:06.607 followed by Saeed  al-Sulaiti in 2:07.523.  In free practice 2, al-Sulaiti led the timings, stopping the clock at 2:05.627 and al-Naimi finished second with 2:05.919.Khalid al-Mal and Hassan al-Mansoori managed to get to the Superpole 2 where the winner was al-Naimi. He clocked a  time of 2:04.914 and will start today from the first place on the grid.“I am very happy with this result, my bike is really good but I am not really happy with the lap time. I tried to make a good lap but I don’t know why I didn’t improve. But I am happy to start from the front row,” said al-Naimi.“The championship has just started and let’s see if tomorrow I can win both races. For sure there will be a fight tomorrow for the first place and I will try to make a little adjustment during the warm up,” he said.The second position in the starting grid will be occupied by Saeed al-Sulaiti, who clocked a lap time of 2:05.264 in Superpole 2. “The lap time was not bad. It is good to start on  the front row but I would be happier if I could get the superpole. But today it was not possible.But we are not very far away,” he said.“We need to work a bit on the set up and we’ll be there. Regarding tomorrow’s race, I expect it is going to be a big fight between the top three, Mishal, Nasser and myself. So let’s see what is going to happen tomorrow,” al-Sulaiti added.Today, the first race of QSTK will start at 11:10am and the second race at 14:10 with free entrance for all spectators at the grandstand and paddock.Meanwhile, during the practice session for the Qatar Touring Car Championship, Qatari driver Mansoor al-Hajri was the fastest with a lap time of 2:28.694.“The track today was a bit dusty and the weather windy and hot. It was nice but as soon as I got into a rhythm my lap timing started going down,” said al-Hajri, who is driving a Toyota.The second place on the grid was taken by Palestinian driver Omran Karama, also driving a Toyota, who clocked a time of 2:30.176.  “It was a great practice, but I had lots of problems with the car and still managed to get the second spot which is very good for the first race of the season,” said Omran.