Abu Dhabi: Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team driver Mads Ostberg finished day one of the Rally Spain, the penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), in third place while Kris Meeke retired after suffering a double puncture on SS3 and will start under Rally 2 regulations on Saturday. Meeke though had won SS2.
Following the super special stage in Barcelona the previous night, Shaikh Khalid Bin Faisal Al Qasimi tackled six further stages on Friday in his Citroën DS3 WRC. “I want to enjoy the rally; when you enjoy you perform and when you perform you provide the engineer important inputs in order to enhance the car’s set-up,” said Shaikh Khalid.
The goal of the team, said Shaikh Khalid, is now to defend their second position in the manufacturers’ championship.
Meanwhile, representing Abu Dhabi Racing in WRC3 category, Mohammad Al Mutawaa was experiencing a huge learning curve on his WRC 3 campaign, that too on a mixed surface. Al Mutawaa was getting to grips with the conditions as the gravel in Spain is vastly different from what he is used to on the gravel stages of the Middle East.
Al Mutawaa, behind the wheel of a Citroën DS3 R3, suffered a puncture on SS4 which affected his overall times, but the junior driver, rewarded a WRC3 seat for his excellent performance in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, nevertheless completed the first day.
“Happy to be here again, I will try all my best to score faster times than my last year’s times and will learn as much as possible,” revealed Al Mutawaa.
Drivers faced a huge challenge with dusty stages as there was no wind, but things should be better tomorrow when they will race on asphalt stages.
Also, the second day on Saturday will have a special 50km test to mark the 50th staging of Rally Spain.
