Doha: Qatar’s three-time Superstock 600 champion Saeed Al Sulaiti proved to be too good even on a virtual track as he dominated the proceeding by winning the first of three finals of the Qatar Online Racing Championship on Sunday.
After leading the qualifying by a massive margin, Al Sulaiti stormed to victory at the virtual Donington Park Circuit with a comfortable 10-second gap ahead of Soud Al Thani, who was unbeaten throughout three qualifying rounds.
Khalid Al Maraghi recovered from a fall during the race which pushed him back to ninth due to a crash and then managed to stage a superb comeback to clinch the remaining spot on the podium. Hade Ahmed started off from seventh spot in the starting grid, but fought back strongly to finish in the fourth place.
Jeremy Parola, the French rider who won the QSTK Trophy this season, settled for the fifth spot. Mohamad Al Zaidan finished sixth ahead of Sulaiti's familiar QSTK 600 rival Abdulla Al Qubaisi who settled for a seventh place finish. Ali Ahmed, Jassim Al Thani and Hamad Al Sahouti rounded up the top 10 in first round of the finals.
The second race of the final round takes place today, followed by the third and last competition on Thursday. Winners of the inaugural online championship will be decided depending on the points collected by the riders at the end of the three rounds.
The series, played on PlayStation 4 platform of MotoGP 19 game, is organised by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation.
