Dubai: Shaikh Abdullah Al Qasimi further consolidated his lead at the top of the overall standings and then promised his best during next week's Rally Jordan.
"Winning is always a good feeling. And now that we have won here, we want to see how well we can do on the international stage in Jordan," Shaikh Abdullah told Gulf News after winning the Abu Dhabi Rally with a time of 47 minutes and 50 seconds on Saturday.
With Wael Marjan as his co-driver, Shaikh Abdullah was in command from the start after finishing at the top with a time of 1:13 minutes in Friday's Prologue.
Good car
"The confidence was always there to do well here and consolidate our position in the overall standings," Shaikh Abdullah said.
"It is now time to look at the next big challenge and that is waiting for us in Jordan," he said.
Shaikh Abdullah and Marjan are scheduled to leave from the UAE for Amman in the early hours of today.
The Rally Jordan, to be held from April 24-27, is the first World Rally Championship (WRC) round in an Arab country since 1976. "Jordan sure does sound so interesting as the terrain is different and the competition will be tough as well. But we want to go out there and see where we stand," Shaikh Abdullah stated.
Coming in second just 41 seconds adrift of Shaikh Abdullah and Marjan was the EMCO Performance team of Yahya Al Ameri and Ali Mirza in their Mitsubishi Evo, while Simon Nutter and Patrick McMurren followed in third in their Subaru Impreza.
"We tried to stay as close as possible to Shaikh Abdullah, but he has a good car and he has all the experience in his favour," Al Ameri admitted.
"We are happy with the second place as it still gives us a realistic chance of contesting for the overall championship standings by the end of the season," Al Ameri added.
Results
Provisional results at the end of the Abu Dhabi Rally that concluded yesterday: 1. Shaikh Abdullah Al Qasimi/Wael Marjan (47.50 mins); 2. Yahya Al Ameri/Ali Mirza (48.31); 3. Simon Nutter/Patrick McMurren (51.04); 4. Ron Oakley/Mark Turner (52.24); 5. Mansour Al Suwaidi/Killian Duffy (58.33); 6. Majid Al Shamsi/Allan Harryman (1:05.01).
