DOHA: Mishal Al Naimi won the last pole position of the QSBK season and he will start today from the front place on the grid.
The Qatari rider was the fastest rider in all the sessions and in the superpole he made the best lap time of 2:01.097.
“I changed the setting of my bike completely and it was easy to ride at 2:01, but I had too much chattering at the front, so I hope we can fix it (tomorrow) at the warm up,” said Al Naimi after winning the pole position.
“I am very happy to make the fastest lap at Losail track ever, and tomorrow we will push hard to win both races. Thanks to Ooredoo for their support and good luck for all riders,” he added.
The defending champion, Alex Cudlin will be second in the grid with a lap time o 2:01.911.
“I am happy to qualify on the front row, and to be second is fine. Mishal was too fast tonight but anyway, our job is not to beat him, it is to win the championship and to do that we need to be on the podium,” he said.
“Tomorrow there is for sure some pressure, as Mishal is fast and the other riders are battling for the third place of the championship, so it will be an interesting race, but I am confident pretty happy with the bike, I can do a little more speed in the engine but let’s see what happens tomorrow and hope to win the championship,” said Cudlin after the superpole.
There are three riders battling for the third overall in the championship, Nasser Al Malki, Nina Prinz and Saeed Al Sulaiti.
Al Malki made the third best time in the superpole and he is happy with his results even he had some problems with the bike during the free practices. “The weather was so difficult for the bike, we changed something on the bike and was working better, but I had a lot of problem in the rear tyre, I don’t have a lot of grip during the free practices and I lost a lot of point in some corners and my lap time was not goo for me,” he said.
“In the superpole we changed for racing tyres, it was better but we still need to work more, but the third position is good for me for the race tomorrow.”
The German rider Prinz will start from the fourth place and she was very confident ahead of the race.
“Today it was a good day, it was one of the best days of this season, and I am happy for tomorrow,” she said.
“I think I have a very good race pace for tomorrow and I hope to be back at the podium tomorrow,” said Nina.
Saeed Al Sulaiti ended on fifth position. Regarding the Supersport category, Lebanese rider Mahmoud Tannir was the fastest. THE PENINSULA
