Proton Competition's Khaled Al Qubaisi set for another full season of endurance racing

Anthony Fernandes 04:54 30/03/2015
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  • Successful debut: Proton took third place in the team standings last season.

    Following a relatively satisfying full debut season last year in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Abu Dhabi Racing driver Khaled Al Qubaisi is now looking forward to the new season which gets underway with the 6 Hours of Silverstone in Great Britain from April 10-12.

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    The Emirates Global Aluminium and Abu Dhabi Racing-backed squad finished third overall in the team standings in the LMGTE Am category behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 RSR and just missed out on the third step of the podium in the drivers’ standings, last season.

    Nevertheless it was an incredible effort by Al Qubaisi, Christian Reid and Klaus Bachler, the trio now returning to do driving duties for 2015 and hoping to improve upon last year’s performance.

    Al Qubaisi said: “It feels great to be back in the WEC, it is a great championship that I love racing in.”

    Noting that this year Sao Paolo will be replaced by the Nurburgring circuit, Al Qubaisi added: “I will miss the Sao Paolo track; I really enjoyed racing there last year.”

    With respect to the German circuit, the Proton Competition driver continued: “It will be great to race at Nurburgring which is one of the most popular race tracks in the world.

    “We will not be racing on the full Nordschliefe as that would be too risky for the prototypes. We will, however, instead race on the F1 section of the circuit which is a track I have raced on before.”Al Qubaisi will return to Nurburgring.

    Touching upon the competition ahead, particularly from the Aston Martins, Al Qubaisi explained: “The FIA has adjusted the balance of performance rules for this year and the Astons should have a smaller restrictor.

    “This translates to approximately 15hp less power than last year. But I’m not certain if this will make any big difference to the Astons, we will have to wait and see at the first test sessions or the opening race weekend at Silverstone from April 10-12.”

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