Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s Shaikh Khalid Al Qasimi found the Acropolis Rally lived up to its reputation as the toughest round of the World Rally Championship on Friday, with thick dust giving him an immediate test on his return to action in Greece.
Partnered by British co-driver Scott Martin in his Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team DS3 WRC, Al Qasimi received an early reminder of the event’s challenging characteristics when he tackled the 3.1km qualifying stage.
Dust thrown up by the cars ahead was sucked in through the DS3’s roof vents, and the UAE driver’s eyes were streaming by the time he completed the stage, having been slowed by poor visibility and delivering the 11th fastest time.
“The dust came into the car and got in my eyes, and for a few corners I couldn’t see much at all,” said Al Qasimi. “It was very annoying and my eyes were hurting, and I know that I would otherwise have been three seconds quicker.”
The dust problem was expected to ease considerably for the first leg’s two night stages to follow, with the cars being sent off at four-minute intervals.
In anticipation of easier conditions ahead, the three fastest drivers on the qualifying stage, world championship leader Sebastien Ogier, Dani Sordo in a Citroën Total Abu Dhabi DS3 and Russian Evgeny Novikov, chose to start 11th, 10th and 9th on the road.
Given the dubious honour of being the first to start the stages, Al Qasimi said: “The dust won’t be a problem now, but as I’m the first away I’ll be cleaning the road for the others so that’s something different that I’ll have to deal with.”
“But I’m much happier with the car now. On the two practice runs this morning it was all over the place, so we made changes to the dampers and I went five seconds quicker on the qualifying stage, even with the dust problem.”
Making his fifth appearance in the Acropolis Rally, where his sixth place in 2009 was his second-best ever WRC finish, Al Qasimi is aiming for an improvement on his ninth position in Portugal last month, when he scored his first WRC points of the season.
Before the ceremonial start of the 59th Acropolis Rally in Athens, Al Qasimi joined the other top WRC drivers in making a signed commitment to the FIA’s global Action for Road Safety campaign.
Later, he was setting the initial pace as the first to tackle the 47.7km opening special stage in daylight, before negotiating the 26km second stage in darkness. Ten more stages follow on Saturday, with four more leading to the finish on Sunday.
