Muscat: Shaikh Khalid Bin Faisal Al Qasimi and his co-driver Chris Patterson slipped back to second place in the Oman International Rally after a broken driveshaft ruined their good start on day two on Friday.
The UAE driver won the opening stage on day one, finishing 6.8 seconds clear of Qatar’s Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari, but he lost stability during the third special stage and slipped back.
“I was really looking forward to the Oman Rally as I won the event back in 2007,” Shaikh Khalid said. “We had a great start but in SS3 in the third kilometre the car started acting strangely and we started losing traction and stability. Initially I thought it was a puncture but we subsequently found out that it was a broken front right driveshaft.”
The broken part on the Citroen DS3 RRC was replaced but he finished day two 2 min 22 sec behind Al Kuwari.
Abu Dhabi Racing junior drivers Mohammad Al Mutaiwe’e, Saeed Bin Touq, Juma Al Falasi and Mansour Bel Helei all had a good start to the rally.
Al Mutaiwe’e finished day two first in the class and fifth overall, 4.6 seconds behind fourth place.
Bin Touq finished his day in sixth place overall, but Bel Helei and Khalid Al Kendi got stuck behind a broken car for around 12km on SS3. However, they came back strongly in the second loop and produced some good times to finish the day third in class and seventh overall, ahead of teammate Al Falasi.
Al Mutaiwe’e said: “It’s a very challenging rally, I’m really learning a lot here in Oman. The stages are very technical with lots of blind crests.”
