Saeed al-Sulaiti and Mashel al-Naimi shared victories in the second round of the Qatar Superstock 600 at Losail International Circuit this weekend.
In the first race of the second round, al-Sulaiti took the victory and crossed the checkered flag ahead of Spanish wild card Julian Simon and Abdulla al-Qubaisi.
Al-Sulaiti, who was third on the grid, managed to take the lead of the race midway and won in a time of 25:19.007.
“At the beginning, I saw that Abdulla and Mashel were pulling away so I decided to try and overtake Julian Simon. I managed to do so and in the next couple of laps I tried to catch them. In the middle of the race I took the lead in the race. Until the last five laps Abdulla was overtaking me on the straight line but I would overtake him in the corners. In the last two laps, everybody struggled with the tyres and I created some gap and won the race,” al-Sulaiti said.
In the second race of the day, al-Naimi, who started from Superpole, changed the strategy and didn’t push from the start, letting others stay in front. In the last three laps, he pushed, took the lead and stayed ahead till the checkered flag, winning the second race with a total time of 25:23.960.
“I am very happy with the result of this weekend. In the first race, I had a problem with the front tyre and I could only finish fourth. In the second race I changed the front fork a little bit. It works better when I am following the riders rather than leading, I cannot push alone. In the last laps, I almost crashed in corner number seven and thirteen but I was very lucky also because I had a little gap. We raced this round with a very experienced and professional rider, Julian Simon, who I know very well from Moto2 and this was an extra motivation for me. Many thanks to QMMF and LCSC and to Ooredoo for their sponsor,” al-Naimi said.
Like in the first race, Simon and al-Qubaisi finished second and third place respectively.
For Simon, this weekend was great as he returned to the track to race. “I am very happy to be here and race in the Qatar Superstock 600. The last period of my racing career was here with the QMMF Racing Team in Moto2, so it is a special place. Also, because I am training MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales who is the Qatar Motorsports Academy Ambassador, and that is an extra motivation to race here,” Simons said.
Al-Sulaiti was leading most of the second race but had a problem with a broken suspension in the last laps that slowed him down and he finished fourth.
In the QSTK Trophy, French rider Jeremy Parola took the victory in both the races. Rayad al-Emadi and Kuwaiti rider Alexander Qabazard finished second and third respectively.
“The first race was very difficult with a lot of wind but it was for everybody. The second race was a bit better, with a very nice fight with Soud al-Thani and Rayad al-Emadi and enjoyed the race a lot. Very happy with my results today,” Parola said.
Al-Sulaiti leads the championship standings with 83 points followed by al-Qubaisi with 77 points. The third place is for al-Naimi with 70 points. Parola leads the QSTK Trophy standings with 95 points.
Trophies were presented by QMMF President Abdulrahman al-Mannai, QMMF General Secretary Abdulrazak al-Kuwari, LCSC Vice President and General Manager Khalid al-Remaihi and LCSC CEO Juan Baquero.