The podium winners at the first race of the fourth round of Losail MX Championship at Losail MX track.
Doha: Ryan Blair, the double winner in the last round, won the first race of the fourth round of Losail MX Championship at Losail MX track.
The British MX1 rider had a very tough battle with the newcomer in Iranian MX2 rider Amirraza Sabetifar.
The two riders were very close throughout the race, but the Iranian crashed in the last lap and virtually handed over the first race win to Blair.
Blair finished the race 5.654 seconds ahead of Sabetifar.
However, Sabetifar did not do any favours to Blair in the second race, racing to a victory a whopping 15.488 seconds ahead of Blair.
“I am very happy with this win as I had a mechanical problem in the free practice and I thought it couldn’t be fixed but thanks to my team, they managed to fix the bike on time,” Blair said after the first race.
Kuwait’s Mohamed Jaffar finished second in MX1 and South Africa’s Leroy Botha was third.
“Today is my first race in MX1 category and the race was very tough with a lot of international competitors but I am happy with the second place and would like to thank my team, Balooshi Racing Team,” Jaffar said.
In the MX2 category, Kuwait’s Abdullah Al Shatti finished behind Sabetifar and UAE’s Saeed al-Shenqiti finished third.
Sabetifar was excited about his podium finish which he achieved despite the crash.
“This track is very technical and you can see clearly that it is a world championship track, the jumps and corners are very well designed and I enjoyed the race a lot. I am on the podium despite the crash. I am very happy about it. I had a good fight with Ryan too during the race. Thanks a lot to QMMF for this opportunity and the good job they are doing here,” he said.
In the second race, Botha and Mohamed Al Balooshi rounded up the MX1 podium, while the MX2 podium remained unchanged.
“I would like to thank to all the riders and teams who have participated in the championship. I welcome the new riders from Iran and Honduras. I am very happy to see that more competitors are coming, which is only making the competition stronger and better in every round. Also, I am very delighted to see that women are also competing in this sport and hope more female riders will join in the coming rounds, Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) President and Losail International Circuit general manager Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah said.
Moath Al Ansari leads the MX1 standings with 148 points, while Botha is second (115) and Al Balooshi is third (112).
In the MX2 category, the leader is Al Shatti has the top spot with 184 points and Hassan Ahmed from Bahrain is second with 155 points. Kuwaiti rider Barak al-Jasmi is third with 133 points.
The trophies were given away by QMMF general secretary Mohamed Saad Al Morraikhi, board member Sultan Zaher al-Morraikhi, FIM Asia vice-president Essa Al Awadi and QMMF Public Relations manager Rashid Al Sulaiti. The Peninsula
