Ghanim Al Maadheed, Nasser Al Kuwari and Hamad Al Sulaiti repeat again victories in the QTCC
Al Maadheed unstoppable again in the QTCC 2K class
Nasser Al Kuwari and Hamad Al Sulaiti repeat again victories in the QTCC M240 class
The penultimate round of Qatar Touring Car Championship held this weekend at the Lusail International Circuit witness another thrilling race with a record of 28 participants taking part in this round.
In the QTCC 2K Class, the Lotus Elise driver, Ghanim Al Maadheed, won again both races in his category and has now a gap of 19 points in the championship standings in front of Ibrahim Al Abdulghani.
In the first race, Al Maadheed finished in first place with a total time of 25:07.938, followed by Mohamed Al Aseeri and Abdulaziz Abdulla. With the reverse grid in the second race, it took only one lap for Al Maadheed to overtake the front cars and take the lead in his category. Al Maadheed won the second race in front of Hamad Al Asam and Abdulaziz Abdulla.
Al Maadheed was very happy with his performance at the end of the round ‘Two amazing and great races with no problems at all with the car. Hopefully the last round will be the same and I can take the title’ said Al Maadheed.
First time of this season that Abdulaziz Abdulla stepped into the podium ‘ It was a great weekend for me with great races, a lot of action and I enjoyed a lot. With the reverse grid in the second race it was more exciting and I am very happy to be back on the podium after long time’ stated Abdulaziz.
In the QTCC M240 Class, Hamad Al Sulaiti won the first race with a total time of 22:43.617 followed by Saadon Al Kuwari and Abdulla Al Khelaifi.
In the second race of QTCC M240, with the reverse grid, Nasser Al Kuwari who started from fourth position, lead the race from the first lap and crossed the chequered flag with a total time of 22:45.476. Abdulla Al Khelaifi and Hamad Al Sulaiti finished second and third respectively in the second race.
Al Sulaiti, who is leading the QTCC M240 championship with a gap of 8 points in front of Al Khelaifi, was extremely happy this weekend ‘This weekend has been very positive for me. I took my first pole position, first and third place in the races and leading the championship. The car is very good but we need to keep working until the last round as it will be very tight and competitive’ said Al Sulaiti.
Al Khelaifi, second in the standings, had some issues with his car during the practice sessions and struggled to do a good lap timing in the qualifying but he was happy with his race results ‘ The first race was very difficult, I was trying to catch Hamad but he was very fast and the pressure from Saadon was immense but I managed to finished third. In the second race, it was more challenging. I started in a better position from the grid but unfortunately for me Nasser had a better start and took second position from the beginning of the race. From there, Hamad , Nasser and me kept fighting throughout the race until Nasser built a bigger gap and by the end of the race I managed to take second place and close the gap but wasn’t enough. Happy with the results so far, staying on the podium for both races is a good sign and hope to finish the season with no major issues’ said Al Khelaifi.
The second race winner and third in the standings, Nasser was very happy with his results ‘In the first race I had an issue with my car and I want to thank my team and my dad to fix the car for the second race. Second race, from the beginning I tried to push and pass the three cars in front of me in the grid. I overtook them in corner 1 and I started to fly so they don’t catch me. I made a good gap so in the middle of the race I was just checking where the other cars were behind me, so I kept the pace until the end’ said Nasser
‘I want to congratulate Hamad Al Sulaiti for his leading, he is a very good driver and improving race by race and happy to see that all the drivers are improving every time and the grid is increasing each round, today with 28 cars so let’s see if we can reach 30 cars in the last round’ ended.
Trophies were presented by Mr. Abdulrahman Al Mannai (QMMF President), Mr. Abdulrazak Al Kuwari (QMMF General Secretary) and Mr. Khalid Al Remaihi (LCSC Vice President & General Manager).
The fifth and last round of Qatar Touring Car Championship will be held on 13th & 14th March as support race for the Superbike World Championship.