Sheikh Khaled, congratulations on your second place. It was obvious that the rally was tough on everyone. We are seeing you at the Qatar International Rally after what happened in Dubai. First of all, how was your rally in general? We know that you’re always looking for more, but the result is acceptable after all the trouble.
We had a puncture on the first day and we couldn’t use the car jack because the car had been bent in the car jack area, so we lost 4 minutes as a result, which was very harsh. On the second loop, our times got better without taking any risks. Today, we went into the morning stage and we were fastest up until the final split when we suffered from a broken drive shaft with 6 kilometers to go, and you know driving without a drive shaft means that you’re being powered by two wheels only. I lost a lot of time, and the drivability was very hard, and it was hard to accelerate out of corners.
So you had the best drifting car?
Of course, there was no proper power and a lot of wheelspin, and we lost a minute in the following stage and 2 minutes in the second one that followed. After the service stop, we were fast but we didn’t take any risk because the drivers ahead of us and behind us were too far away, but our times were fast without taking any risks. We were very balanced.
What do you think of the rally in terms of organization and management? And what about about the special stages? We witnessed a lot of punctures.
The rally was unsuccessful, completely unsuccessful. Thank God we didn’t bring any junior drivers. Other cars wouldn’t have endured, and even these cars (RRC) couldn’t endure. A rally needs proper terrain, and if you don’t have proper terrain, you don’t have a rally, so it was a very unsuccessful event.
Sheikh Khaled you gained 18 points today. Your championship prospects have gotten better compared to yesterday, and it’s a long championship this year. What are you planning to do?
I don’t know, I still haven’t decided whether to continue with the championship or not.
What about the junior drivers?
The junior drivers will take part in a variety of events, and you know that they have different programs. Mohamed Al Mutawaa is going to the World Rally Championship, and it will be nice to see an Arab driver on the international level. There are different programs like circuit racing and karting.
There’s Khaled Al Qubaisi, there’s a complete program.
Indeed, we have a big vision.
Sheikh Khaled best of luck, and we’ll hopefully see you score better results in upcoming rallies.