Rally Poland may have been a frustrating experience for the Citroen Abu Dhabi team, but Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi said he believes there is plenty of optimism to take from the latest round of the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Having run strongly in the opening stages of the event in Mikolajki, both Mads Ostberg and Kris Meeke encountered problems that curtailed their hopes of a podium finish.
A puncture wrecked Meeke’s hopes, but he recovered to finish seventh, picking up six championship points.
However, Ostberg, who had been running third, crashed after suffering a broken suspension on Saturday, the third day of the four-day event. The event was won by Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier, the championship points leader.
Sheikh Khalid, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Racing, drives a third Abu Dhabi Citroen car in the championship but did not race in Poland.
The Emirati, who balances his WRC commitments with racing in the Middle East Rally Championship, credited the hard work of the team for making them competitive.
“The team had a great start to Rally Poland because everyone worked really hard on the cars’ set-up and testing,” he said.
“I was very happy to see both Mads and Kris battling for positions inside the top five until stage 14, when I think our drivers were hit by bad luck, rather than technical failure or a mistake on their part.
“But for us to have a puncture with Kris and then a broken front-left suspension and rollover with Mads can only be bad luck.”
Both Ostberg and Meeke had run on a close pace to Ogier, who won the event by more than a minute over teammate Andreas Mikkelsen for his fifth title of the season.
With a 50-point lead, the defending champion is on target to retain his crown, and he acknowledged he was surprised to have such a sizeable cushion.
“This was a good step for my championship and it’s more than I expected,” the Frenchman said. “My target was to maintain the lead and we extended it quite a lot.
“We have a 50-point advantage. That’s two victories with six races to go, and it looks good in my race to the second title.”
Of his success in Poland, he said: “I knew from being first on the road on Thursday and Friday that staying in contact with the lead was the priority.
“On Saturday, the conditions were equal and I knew that by carrying a lot of speed, I could make a difference.
“In the end, it paid off and it was a bigger gap than I thought, because of Andreas’s problems in the last stage with his brakes. On Sunday, I could relax.”
Volkswagen have had the upper hand this season, winning all seven WRC events, but Sheikh Khalid said he believes his teammates could have pushed Ogier hard in Poland without their misfortune, and thinks they can fight for victories in the second half of the season, starting at Rally Finland, which begins on July 31.
“I believe we could have closed the gap with leaders Volkswagen had bad luck not struck both Mads and Kris,” he said.
“We are now heading into the second part of the season and we must push harder.”
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