Saadon al-Kuwari and Abdullah al-Khelaifi shared the spoils in the opening round of the Qatar Touring Car Championship, with both the drivers winning a race each to set up an exciting season ahead.
At the Losail International Circuit last night, veteran al-Kuwari beat his younger rival to finish first in the Race 1. But defending champion al-Khelaifi had his revenge in the Race 2, as he outwitted his experienced rival. Both the drivers were in a Toyota GT86.
In Race 1, al-Kuwari starting from second jumped into the lead as pole-sitter Ibrahim al-Abdulghani suffered an engine problem in the very first lap and had to retire. Al-Kuwari crossed the line in 24 minutes and 43.786 secs, with al-Khelaifi 1.154secs behind.
Al-Kuwari’s son Nasser al-Kuwari, making his maiden appearance at QTCC, missed out on the podium after a close battle with Adham Eldib, who pipped him to a third-place finish. It was the first podium finish of his career for Eldib, who would go on to his second podium later in the night.
In the 10-lap Race 2, drivers started in reverse grid. But the tussle was between al-Kuwari and al-Khelaifi, who raced wheel-to-wheel before the latter cruised to victory.
In the end, al-Khelaifi won with a resounding seven-second margin. Eldib in Honda EP3 was comfortably third again.
“I am very happy. It was a very tough Race 1. Abdullah put me under pressure from the start to the finish. He is the QTCC champion, very young and very fast driver. He was behind me all the time but I had to use all my experience to beat him in Race 1,” said al-Kuwari.
Al-Khelaifi rued not being able to capitalise on a good start. “Saadon was better than me in the start. I tried to catch him on the straight but I couldn’t take the first position. There was an accident in the middle of the race on the straight and I had a huge oversteer which cost me a lot of time and he built the gap from that and I couldn’t catch him,” said al-Khelaifi.
For Eldib, it was a night he won’t forget for a long time. “I was the first podium of my career. It is a fantastic feeling. It was an amazing race. I qualified fourth but I know that on the grid there were so many great drivers. I had a great race especially with Nasser al-Kuwari. We kept on exchanging positions but I kept the pace and pushed hard till the end. I am very happy to get back-to-back podium finishes,” he said.
The trophies were presented by QMMF President Abdulrahman al-Mannai, LCSC General Manager Khalid al-Remaihi and QMMF Secretary-General Abdulrazak al-Kuwari.