DOHA: Australia’s Alex Cudlin won the first race of the day at the Qatar SuperBike, from the start until the checkered flag with a gap of 5.444 ahead of Nasser Al Malki who finished second.
“The race was pretty easy to be honest, I got into the lead in the second corner, I had a plan if i was going to win the race to go crazy at the beginning and be as fast as I can, and my idea was to make a gap,” Cudlin said after winning the race.
“After the first lap I thought it was Nasser behind me, but then I realised it was Mishal and I made another lap setting the fastest lap of the race and from there I just controled it as much as I could. I saw on the board seven seconds lead and from that I didn’t had to push vey hard to secure the win,” he added.
Al Malki, who started from the first place in the grid as he got thepole position, made a mistake in the first lap when he missed one gear and went off the track, going down to the eight position. The BMW Qatari rider had to tough race, recovering positions until he finished in second place. “I started on pole and I expected a big fight with Alex but in the first corner I missed the gear in corner twelve, so I went out and when I came in the track, there were too much traffic and a lot of riders were passing and Alex made a gap,” he said and added:
“I thought what to do but I didn’t give up so I pushed very hard in every lap and I stayed passing all the riders until I was second. Finally I saw Alex in the end, but I didn’t had enough laps to catch him, but I am happy with the second position for what happened to me, bad luck but this is the race,” the BMW rider further added.
The third position in the podium was for the German rider Nina Prinz, who started fourth in the grid, and was really happy to back on the podium. Mishal Al Naimi who started third in the grid, had a problemwith the my Honda bike and had to retire in the middle of the race.
In the second race of the day, Alex had to finished the race in front of Nasser in order to secure his fourth straight title but the worst ‘scenario’ appear and the title had to wait until the last race.Cudlin couldn’t start the race due to a problem with his Kawasaki and he was , so it was a perfect opportunity to Nasser to reduce the gap between him and Alex and so the Qatari did.
Nasser Al Malki won the second race being very strong from the beginning of the race, knowing that Alex will not score any point and he had a great opportunity to reduce the gap.
Al Malki won the race with a difference of 18.067 ahead of Mishal Al Naimi who finished second.
‘I am very happy with the win in the second race but I was expecting a nice race with Alex Cudlin, and sorry for what happen to him, but there was not too much pressure on me in the race,” Nasser said before explaining:
“The only problem was a little bit of oil on the track in some corners as I almost lose the bike, so I didn’t push 100% , I stayed in my rhythm to finish the race and no crash.” He also appreciated his team and sponsors: “Thanks to my team Lewhiyra and sponsors and all my mechanics for their great job.
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