Abdulla al-Qubaisi broke his teammate Saeed al-Sulaiti's Qatar Superstock 600 lap time record with a timing of 2:03.555 secs in the Free Practice 2 of the fourth round of QSTK600 yesterday. Al-Sulaiti had held the record, which he had set
during Round 2 of the championship.
Yesterday, al-Qubaisi tried his best to get the pole position but al-Sulaiti managed to snatch it for the fourth time in a row with a time of 2:04.060, only 0.081 in front of al-Qubaisi at the Losail International Circuit. “In the first two Free Practices, we were struggling a bit to find a good grip but at the same time I was really happy to see Abdulla al-Qubaisi make record lap time in the championship, which is amazing,” said al-Sulaiti.
“For the Superpole, we modified the bike a bit and that gave me more confidence, but still it was tough to beat Abdulla, he was really in form today. In the last five minutes of the Superpole 2, we were able to squeeze the maximum from the bike and finish in front of him. My expectation for tomorrow is that it is going to be very difficult races especially with Abdulla in good form. But I will show him that I can fight as well,” added al-Sulaiti.
Al-Qubaisi was very happy with his performance yesterday and was to fight for another double victory as he did in the last round. “I am very happy to break the lap time record in the championship. Tomorrow I will push hard to win both races and reduce the gap in the standings. It will be hard to fight with Saeed but I will give my best,” al-Qubaisi said. Mishal al-Naimi will start in the third place at today’s grid.
In the QSTK Trophy, the fastest rider again record Jassim al-Thani, followed by Mohamed al-Zaidan and Ali Abdulhussain. In the Qatar Touring Car Championship, Saadon al-Kuwari (Toyota GT86) took his first pole position of the season with a lap time of 2:21.492. He will start from the front row in front of Abdulla al-Khelaifi (Honda S2000) who did a lap time of 2:22.257.
In the last round, al-Kuwari had finished second in both races and he will try to take a double victory today to reduce the gap in the standings. “Tomorrow races will be difficult as the timings are very close. I am very happy with today result, the car is performing very well, and I will try tomorrow to take the victory in both races’,” said al-Kuwari.
The leader of the championship, al-Khelaifi, did only 3 laps at the qualifying but it was enough to secure the second place in the grid. “‘I did only few laps during the first minutes of the session. In general, it was good, the track was much better than last round. I managed to drop my lap time but unfortunately it was not fast enough to secure the pole as Saadon was faster. I am happy even though I could not take the pole. The strategy for tomorrow is just to stay calm and follow Saadon until he makes a mistake and not be aggressive. I have to collect at least 20 points, so finishing second is enough,” said al-Khelaifi. Ibrahim al-Abdulghani did the third best lap time, 2:25.863.
Today, QSTK Race 1 starts at 11:30am and Race 2 will begin at 2:30pm. For QTCC, the first race is scheduled at 1pm and the second race at 4pm.
Qatar Superstock 600 and Qatar Touring Car Championship are organised by the Losail Circuit Sports Club and Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation with Pirelli Qatar as sponsor.
Saeed al-Sulaiti in action during the Superpole for the fourth round of the QSTK600 at the Losail International Circuit yesterday.
