Saeed Al Sulaiti celebrates after wining the Superpole yesterday, ahead of the final round of the Superstock 600 Championship at Losail International Circuit which will take place today.
Doha: For fifth time in a row this season, Popular rider Saeed Al Sulaiti grabbed the Superpole for today’s final round of the Superstock 600 Championship (QSTK600) at Losail International Circuit.
Al Sulaiti, who is leading the championship only by four points ahead of Abdulla Al Qubaisi, knows the importance of a good position on the grid for the final two races of the concluding round of the season.
He clocked 2:04.052 on his last lap of the Superpole and was 0.133 seconds faster than Al Qubaisi who came in second place with a time of 2:04.185.
“Today I went good, but in the last round I had a crash. I didn’t have a really good feeling in the front and this round we tried to improve it in the free practice one and I had a crash. But then we made some changes and I was more confident,” Al Sulaiti said.
“I am very happy to make again the best lap timing in the Superpole and took all the Superpoles of the season. For tomorrow, I have a small plan for the warm up and then fight for the race.
“Of course it will be extremely difficult as Abdulla is really looking forward to win and for sure he is going to do a really great race. So let’s see tomorrow and I wish all the best and I am looking forward to a safe race,” Saeed said.
Young rider Al Qubaisi is really looking forward to racing today and will give his best to secure his first QSTK600 Championship.
“Today, in the qualifying and free practice I did a good laptime and we can see that tomorrow there will be a lot of action in the races. Lap timings are so close between the top three riders. Tomorrow, I will push from the beginning of the first lap to create the gap and try to win my first championship,” Al Qubaisi said.
Mashel Al Naimi will start from the third place on the grid as he did a lap time of 2:04.589.
“Today I feel better in the Superpole, I went with new tyres and my laptime was good but still Saeed and Abdulla are faster by half of a second. We have to work for tomorrow. In the warm-up, we will change something and try to stay with them and push for the race to get a victory in this season,” stated Al Naimi.
In the QSTK Trophy, Jassim Al Thani, who already got the title in his category, was again the faster rider, followed by Mohammad Al Zaidan and Mohammad Al Eidi.
In the Qatar Touring Car Championship, as the championship title is already decided for Abdullah Al Khelaifi, all the pressure will be on Mohamad Al Khaiat, Hamad Al Sulaiti and Ghanim Al Maadheed who are separated by only four points. All of them have a chance to grab the second place in the championship.
Yesterday, Al Khelaifi again the pole position with a lap time of 2:25.096 in his HondaS2000.
“I came with no pressure, the weather is a bit hot so we couldn’t match our times of the previous round. Hopefully tomorrow will be cooler. Probably I will go with the previous set up for the next season as the set up of today was not successful at all.
“I had one problem during the free practice, with some oil leaking but we fixed it and in all was perfect in the qualifying,” Al Khelaifi said.
Second best lap time was for Mohamad Al Khaiat with his Toyota GT86, 2:26.412 and second in the general standings.
Today, QSTK600 races will begin at 11:10am and at 2:10pm. For the cars, QTCC, the races will be at 12:45pm and at 3:45pm.
There will be free entrance for all the fans at the grandstand and also at the Paddock.
Qatar Superstock 600 and Qatar Touring Car Championships are organised by Losail Circuit Sports Club and Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation with Pirelli Qatar and Inside as sponsors.
