Al Ketbi bounces back from radiator woes

Dubai: Skydive Dubai rally driver Rashid Al Ketbi recovered from a broken radiator on Saturday to set impressive times at Rally Poland — round seven of the 13 stage World Rally Championship-2 (WRC2) season.

The Dubai-based driver and his German co-driver Karina Hepperle couldn’t keep up with WRC2 leaders Ott Tanak of Estonia and Jari Ketomaa of Finland after suffering a broken radiator.

However, they came back from 66th position to 40th setting regular WRC2 top five times.

“This was an unbelievably fast and difficult rally,” said Al Ketbi.

“It was a bad start with the incident on the second stage, but we regrouped on Friday morning and got better and better as the rally progressed. These are the fastest stages I have ever driven on — fast, technical and great experience.

“We were regularly setting top WRC2 stage times and improving on every stage, even though I had an ECU wiring problem for a time and that cost me vital seconds. The atmosphere here was incredible with the sheer number of spectators and the changeable weather on Saturday made it that much more interesting.”