DOha: Qatar’s Mishal Al Naimi got the pole position in the third round of the Qatar Superbike at the Losail International Circuit.
The Qatari rider was the fastest with a lap time of 2:01.868 on Friday and will start the races in the front of the grid.
“I am happy with the pole position,” said Al Naimi after the qualifying stage.
“I tried to make a good set up but I cannot , I still have a problem with the bike, I tried to have a good set up from the first practice but it I couldn’t find it. In the warm up, we will try to find to remove this chattering and find a good set up to make a good race and fight for the two wins,” he added.
The leader of the championship, Alex Cudlin made the second best time after finishing the job in 2:01.966 while Saeed Al Sulaiti secured third position.
“Today was a good day, I am happy with the result,” said Cudlin. “I wanted to get the pole position, but I think we look better for the race, the tyre is good and I was able to make all the laps fast but Mishal’s bike is fast in the straight but I think I can have more speed in the corners, but we’ll see, it is 15 laps races,” he added before hoping to win the race. Meanwhile, for Al Sulaiti, this will be his first time of the season to start from the front row.
“I am very happy with today sessions, it is my first time in the season to be in the first row on the grid, so this is very good result for us,” said the jubilant rider.
“We have been working very hard to get good results and I am very happy with the performance, I just need to work a little bit on the set up and I think we are ready for the race. Good luck for everybody and thanks to my team for the hard work and to QMMF,” he added. In the Qatar Supersport Championship, the pole position was for the Saudi Arabian rider Abdul Aziz Bin Ladin followed by Fahid Al Sowaidi and Ahmed Al Muyini.
The best qualified women was the Serbian rider Manca Katrasnik who ended in the seventh position overall.
THE PENINSULA
