‘Mansour was pushing me throughout the race. I am glad that I have such a strong competitor to make the championship more challenging’

The second round of the Qatar Touring Car Championship held last weekend saw Qatari Toyota driver Abdulla al-Khelaifi notching up another double victory.
In this round, there were four new drivers in the championship, Qataris — Abdulrahman Tolefat, Hamad al-Asam and Mahmoud al-Khalafat and Lebanon’s Nadim Ziade. A total of twelve competitors took part in this round.
In the first race, Mansour al-Hajri, who started on pole position, lead the race only for three laps, as al-Khelaifi overtook him and kept the first position until the chequered flag.
“I had a long fight with my friend and competitor Mansour. As I said before he is getting faster and faster and now I can’t get him out of my rear view mirror. He was pushing me throughout the race and I am glad that I have such a strong competitor to make the championship more challenging and to give the audience an exciting race to watch,” said al-Khelaifi after the win.
Mansour had a suspension set up issue but he managed to secure the pole position before ending the session. Al-Hajri finished in second place as he did in the previous round.  
“I had a good start from pole position. As in round one Abdulla was there behind me. We battled the entire race but Abdulla managed to pass me after a couple of laps. Due to confusion in the number of laps in the race I didn’t get the chance to overtake Abdulla,” commented al-Hajri.
The newcomer driver in the championship, al-Khalafat, also driving a Toyota, started in fourth place in the grid and managed to step into the podium in third place.  
“My first race and I am on the podium. Those guys have to watch out in the next round. In the beginning of the race I had a good battle with Hamad until he spun out and then I focused on catching up with the top two cars,” said al-Khalafat.
Fourth place went to George Coleman and Omran al-Karama finished fifth.
In the second race, with the reverse grid, the competition was more challenging. Al-Hajri, starting from the ninth position, took the lead in the second lap. He had a clear track in front of him and he wanted to get into his rhythm but al-Khelaifi didn’t let him run away.
Al-Hajri made a mistake in the calculation of the laps, and at the last corner of the last lap, al-Hajri saw al-Khelaifi braking late and he let him pass, thinking that he still had another lap to overtake but it was the last one.
“As in the previous races, I was faster in some parts of the track and Abdulla in other. I let Abdulla pass me thinking that I still have another lap to overtake me, but as in the first race, I had a confusion regarding the track signal. I have discussed it with the Clerk of the Course about this, so hopefully next round we will have clearer information on the finish line board,” said al-Hajri.
At the end, al-Khelaifi again took the victory in the last corner of the race. “I will have to work very hard not to make any mistakes if I want to win this championship. Mansour is a very hard competitor and he is improving every race. Never before I thought that I will be battling for the first position the entire race. It was great to see new competitors join us and I hope that our grid gets bigger and bigger,” added the double winner.
The third position was again for al-Khalafat. “It was fun and scary as it was my first reverse grid race and there were so many cars to watch out for. I had a battle with Hamad for three laps but I managed to overtake him on the straight and kept that position till the end of the race. Very happy with my two podiums today,” said al-Khalafat.
Adham al-Dib finished fourth and al-Karama again ended up fifth.
Trophies were presented by QMMF President Abdulrahman al-Mannai, LCSC General Manager & Vice-President Khalid al-Remaihi and QMMF General Secretary Abdulrazaq al-Kuwari.
Al-Khelaifi is leading the championship with 57 points, only one point ahead of al-Hajri who has 56 points. Al-Karama is third with 45 points.