Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Racing (ADR) junior driver Mohammad Al Mutawaa will be targeting a top-five finish when Round 2 of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), Rally Poland, gets under way from June 30 to July 3.
Al Mutawaa, classified eighth on his JWRC debut last year, will be behind the wheel of a Citroën DS3 and he is hoping to match the pace he had in the opening round in Portugal in May last month.
In Portugal, Al Mutawaa and co-driver Stephen McAuley were inside the top six on all stages on day one despite a puncture but had to unfortunately retire on day two after there car hit a rock. But the Abu Dhabi Racing driver returned under Rally 2 regulations on the final day and concentrated on bringing the car home safely and scoring points, which he did by classifying in eighth.
Describing his Portugal participation as a huge learning curve, Al Mutawaa says the aim in Poland will be to avoid mistakes and to achieve his goal on trying to finish inside the top five.
“Rally Portugal was a great turning point for me! I was able to get into the top five with my stage timings, which is helping me reach my target of finishing in the top five for the rally. Now that I know I have the pace I can focus on improving it and fine tuning my performance by reducing mistakes on the stage,” said Mohammad Al Mutawaa.
“Hopefully, by the end of the year I will win a few stages and maybe a rally. I am now looking forward to racing in Poland where I will try to match the same pace I had in Portugal. The goal also will be to have a clean run throughout all the stages by avoiding mistakes!”
Rally Poland will be very challenging where very fast roads will see speeds approach those of Rally Finland. Tall grass lines many sections, limiting visibility on the approach to corners; the grass also hides rocks so cutting corners will be a risky pastime. There will be in total 21 stages with 306.10km of competitive racing distance.
