Al-Khelaifi emerges Qatar Touring Car champion

For fourth time in a row, Abdulla al-Khelaifi has been crowned Qatar Touring Car champion with still one more round to go.Al-Khelaifi had no pressure yesterday, as he needed to secure only 20 points to win the title, and the Honda S2000 driver did in style by winning both races at the at the Losial International Circuit yesterday. In the first race, Saadon al-Kuwari took the lead and battled with al-Khelafii during the first four laps, but then al-Kuwari had a problem with his Honda Civic and abandoned the race. From that moment, al-Khelaifi just took it easy until the checkered flag.In the first race, Mohamed al-Khaiat (Toyota GT86) finished second, crossing the line 6.970s behind Al-Khelafi and Ahmed al-Asiri (Honda Civic) came third.In the second race, Ibrahim al-Abdulghani (Honda S2000) led the race until the seventh lap, when the unstoppable al-Khelaifi, who started from the back due to the reverse grid, overtook him and won again the race by 6.577s ahead of Al-Abddulghani. Mohamad al-Khaiat finished third.“For this round, I came with the plan to collect just 20 points. In the first race, I changed something in the car to be as fast as Saadon, and I managed to follow him until he had a mechanical problem and retired. So, first race was easy, since I had only Saadon until he was out,” said al-Khelaifi.“Second race was better and it was more fun. I went to the race with no pressure and I enjoyed with all the competitors. I stayed calm with the guys battling in front of me and took them one by one as soon as I had a safe gap. By the lap seven, I overtook Ibrahim al-Abdulghani, who was a really good competitor and took another victory. “I would like to thank Qatar Scientific Club for providing me their facilities to work on my car and to Qatar Islamic Insurance for sponsoring me this round and the next one,” he said.Al-Khaiat was also was happy to step on the podium two times in the same round.“This is my first time that I am on the podium in both races and it is great. I have been suffering some problems with the car but now the car is much better. I am looking forward to the last round to get good results to fight for the second place in the championship,” said al-Khaiat.Al-Abdulghani, who couldn’t repeat his good results of two podium finishes from last weekend, was satisfied with his performance. “I was hoping for a better result in this round and step onto the podium twice, but overall, I am satisfied. I was close to finishing third in the first race but I had an issue in the car at the end of the race. Luckily, I came back in the second, with a second place finish, so hopefully I can recover the lost points in the final round,” al-Abdulghani said.With the title already taken by Al-Khelaifi, the next round will decide the runner-up of the championship between Mohamed al-Khaiat (67 points), Hamad al-Sulaiti (65 points) and Ghanim al-Maadheed (63 points).Trophies were presented by Losial Circuit Sports Club (LCSC) Vice President and General Manager Khalid al-Remaihi and CEO of LCSC, Juan Baquero. The fifth and final round of Qatar Touring Car Championship will be on March 29-30.