Al Quassimi returns to WRC this weekend

Khalid Al Qassimi will be back in action this weekend for the 5th round of the WRC season – World Rally Championship. The driver from Abu Dhabi will be participating in his third WRC event with the BP Ford team.

Although Al Qassimi has little experience in the WRC, he will be the most experienced in Jordan this weekend. He has indeed already raced several times in Jordan and even won the 2007 edition in the Middle East Rally Championship. At that time, he was a candidate for advancement in the WRC.

This year, his co-driver Michael Orr and he will participate in the rally with a Ford Focus RS WRC lined up alongside those of Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala from the BP-Ford team.

Jordan marks the return of the crew since the Swedish Rally in February. This will be Al Qassimi’s first gravel rally since the Rally of Finland in August.

« I have participated in this rally six or seven times but the desert roads we used to travel on have been replaced by new roads », explains Al Qassimi, who is already 36 years old.

« 40% of the special stages will be different from 2007. The roads are flat, it’s like asphalt. Only the colors remind you it’s dirt. I won last year by being at 50%. That’s the pace I’ll also adopt this year to start. If I feel good, I’ll push a bit more. This will be my first rally with the new Pirelli tires. I’ll need some time to understand them. »

Quotations collected by the WRC