DOHA: The rough gravel terrains of Chile will test the 12 qualifiers to limits as they battle it out in the WRC 8 semifinals for six slots on Sunday.
WRC 8, also known as WRC 8: World Rally Championship, is the official game of the 2019 World Rally Championship. The game was developed by French developer Kylotonn
The drivers have been split into two pools with six each and the Group A will take to the starting line at 5 pm while the Group B begins the quest one and a half hours later.
There will be three rounds in all to spot the fastest three from each group on the basis of the maximum points collected. Three top drivers each from the two groups will figure in the one race shootout to decide the champion.
The races will have Qatar Online Racing Championship Observer Omar Aswat and Timekeeping Officer Aaron Limbago.
The Group A consists of Omani rally champion Zakariya Al Aufi, Mansour Dbeissy (eighth in QORC Auto finals), Misfer Al Hajri, Khalid Al Maraghi (QORC Moto third-place winner), Ahmed Al Kuwari and Patrick Roux.
The Group B features former FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies T2 winner Adel Hussein Abdulla, who has been unbeaten in all 22 stages that he has contested so far, Ammar Al Balushi, the co-driver of Al Aufi, Ahmed El Khouly (QORC Auto winner), Hamad Al Sulaiti (QTCC M240 and QORC Auto runner-up), Kuwait’s Meshari Al Thefiri and his co-driver Nasser Saadoun Al Kuwari, the MERC 2 champions.
Abdulla has indeed been the driver to beat after three qualifying rallies (Sweden, France and Argentina).
“I hope I can something very good in this stage and qualify for the finals. The competition is certaintly going to get difficult with the best drivers left in the fray. I’ll try my best to win the race tomorrow,” said Abdulla.
“The WRC cars (in the semi-finals) are much faster than the R5 that we used in the qualifying, requiring a great deal of concentration. Also we need to be quite sharp on turns. I wish good luck to all and may the deserving driver win and advance to the finals.”
But Abdulla’s pool may not be easy for him. Al Balushi, with 16 stage wins, is surely going to lead the challenge.
He said: “Of course the drivers who qualified to the finals are very skilled and I feel the competition level will be high. I will try my best so that I can grab a podium position.”
