Al Sulaiti shines; Al Asam takes first pole

DOHA: Qatar’s Saeed Al Sulaiti grabbed another Superpole at the third round of Qatar Superstock 600 held yesterday at Losail International Circuit.
Al Sulaiti timings in the free practice 1 were not as he expected but he managed to get better ones in free practice 2 and Superpole, where he did a lap time of 2:04.357.
“In the free practice 1, the conditions of the track were not good as some dust the last days, it was something we were expecting but we managed to get the feeling with the bike. In the free practice 2 we focused on improving the set up of the bike as in the last round we had some ideas but unfortunately they were not working at all,” Al Sulaiti said.
“When it came Superpole we just decided to go back to the previous settings because there is no room for any mistake. I was really surprised that I could do this good lap time, 2:04.357. I am very happy because in the beginning of the day it was a disaster but at the end it was good and we got the superpole again. For tomorrow, the feeling should be the same and we’ll push for a win. Many thanks to Ooredoo for their continuous support and to QMMF and Losail Circuit Sport Club for the organisation of the event,” Al Sulaiti said.
Mishal Al Naimi, will start from the second place today, followed by Nasser Al Malki and Abdullah Al Qubaisi in third and fourth places in the starting grid respectively.
In the QSTK Trophy, the fastest rider was Soud Al Thani. Jassim Al Thani and Essa Al Mutawa finished second and third respectively in QSTK Trophy.
Surprisingly,  the pole postion in the Qatar Touring Car Championshi fourth round was for Hamad Al Asam, with a lap time of 2:24.011
The Qualifying practice was stoped due to red flag as Mansour Al Hajri spinned on the track leaving gravel all over the track. Unfortunately Al Hajri couldn’t continue the qualifying session.
Qatar’s Al Asam is very happy with his first pole postion of the season ‘ I will start tomorrow from first place in the grid. The car is performing better and better in every round. I didn’t do anything to the car since the last round, just did more work with the tyre pressure and it helped me a lot. One lap was enough, I noticed that more than 2 laps, the tyres get more hot , so one lap, no mistakes I think I did it very well and tomorrow I will try to hold the position’ said Al Asam.
Adham El Dib will start today from the second place with a lap time of 2:25.414.
Al Khelaifi, the defending champion and leader in the standings, will start from the third place in the grid as he did a lap time of 2:26.296.
Tomorrow, QSTK Race 1 starts at 11.30am and Race 2 at 2.30pm. For QTCC, the first race is scheduled at 1.00pm and the second race at 4.00pm.
Qatar Superstock 600 and Qatar Touring Car Championship are organized by Losail Circuit Sports Club and Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation with Pirelli Qatar and Inside as sponsors of both championships.
The Karting track will be also opened tomorrow  from 2pm to 7pm.