Abdullah Al Khelaifi (centre), Mansoor Al Hajri and Omran Karama pose for a photograph on the podium after the first round of the Qatar Touring Car Championship at Losail International Circuit yesterday.
Qatari driver Abdullah Al Khelaifi won both races of the Qatar Touring Car Championship (QTCC) held yesterday at Losail International Circuit.
In the first race, Al Khelaifi started from the second row. This was because he had some electrical problems during the practice session and he couldn’t make a good lap timing. But on race day, he managed to take the lead immediately after the green light came on.
"It was a great race with a hard competition as Mansoor was getting very close to my timings, in fact he did the fastest lap today. We had a lot of fun, he was the fastest in one section and I was in another. I managed to fix the car and after that I got my timings better so I was able to take the win," Al Khelaifi said after the race.
Mansoor Al Hajri was on pole position but was overtaken by Al Khelaifi just at the start of the race and he kept the second position during the whole race.
"The race was great. I had a good start from pole position and as I expected, Abdullah fixed his problem and he is much better now. I fixed an air kit to my car for the first time it improved a lot the handling but I am not used to it and I tried to stay behind Abdullah as much as possible but he is really fast’ Al Hajri said.
The third place on the podium was for Omran Karama, who was very happy with his position, taking into account the problems he has with his car.
"It was a good race, even with the problems I had, I cannot complain. The weather is fine, a bit dusty but happy with my third place" Karama said.
The second race added more excitement with the reverse starting grid, as the fastest drivers starting from the back had to work away his way to the front. Al Khelaifi started from the third row together with Al Hajri and both of them had a tough fight to reach the first positions, but finally Al Khelaifi grabbed the victory again.
"The race was different. I had a long fight with Mansoor to get the first position. The reverse grid also made it harder for me to get Mansoor because of all the other cars around, but eventually one mistake cost him the race but he is getting faster every race and we have more fun competing with him. Also, Omran had a problem with his car so I think that if that wasn’t the issue we would have had a three battle for the first position," said the double winner.
Mansoor Al Hajri was placed second again.
Omran Karama had a difficult second race as his problems with his car continued and he had to struggle a lot to end the race but finally he got again the third position.
The fourth position was for George Coleman. "It was a very interesting start from the back, the reverse grid is really an interesting way of doing it. During a lot of time, Shady, Omran and myself were fighting and I managed to hold the third position for a while until Omran passed me just four corners before the end. Let’s see how it goes in the next round," said George. As the qualifying session is also taking into account for the points, both Al Khelaifi and Al Hajri are leading the overall standings with 28 points each. Omran Karama is third with 25 points and Shady El Mohandes fourth with 19 points.
The next round of the Qatar Touring Car Championship will be held on February 3 and 4.
