Al-Naimi, al-Sulaiti share wins

Qatar’s Mishal al-Naimi and Saeed al-Sulaiti again shared victories asthe third round of Qatar Superstock 600 concluded yesterday.In the first race of the day, Saeed led until the start of the last lapbefore he was overtaken by Mishal. Saeed finished second while the17-year-old Balint Kovacs from Hungary took his first podium of theseason in third position.In the second race, Mishal pushed very hard during the first two laps,doing the best lap time of this race. But he couldn’t keep up the paceand Saeed passed him on the third lap for victory.Mishal finished second and Nasser al-Malki was third.In the QSTK Trophy, Essa al-Mutawa took both victories while Sheikh Soudal-Thani and Sheikh Jassim al-Thani finished second and thirdrespectively in both races.Mishal was very happy at the end of the day. “Happy with the overallresult of this weekend. Race one was very good; on the last lap whenSaeed made a mistake in the first corner, I passed him. When I passedhim, there were a lot of slow riders in front of us we rode very slowlyon the last lap.“In the second race, I pushed too much from the first two laps and Ifelt pain in my arm. Then I realised that it was a mistake to push sohard from the beginning. I then realised that it was better to becontent with second place. Hungarian teen Kovacs was very happy to get his first podium. “I amreally happy to finally get a podium in this championship. Hope that wecan keep the same performance in the coming rounds.” The QSTK Trophy winner in both races, Essa al-Mutawa, was very pleased with his victory. “I am very happy to win both races and hope to keep it like this in thecoming rounds. I am going to do some training in the coming weeks to bebetter for the next round during MotoGP. Many thanks to QMMF and LCSCfor the organization and support on this championship,” said al-Mutawa.After the third round, Sheikh Soud al-Thani is leading his category by 10 points in front of Essa al-Mutawa.“The first race was amazing, the level was very high, much higher thanthe last round. We pushed and went for a better lap time, the pace wasperfect and the overall time was very good. Second race, after six laps Iwas finished but I am lucky to be again on the podium,” said SheikhSoud.Trophies were presented by QMMF general secretary Abdulrazak al-Kuwari.The fourth round of Qatar Superstock Championship will take place during the Qatar MotoGP on March 16 and 17.