Having
qualified fifth-in-class for race one, Salman had to drive cautiously
after suffering from severe tyre graining during the race. Although
this limited his progress through the field, a sensible, error-free
drive saw him hold off the cars behind and maintain his starting
position to take fifth at the chequered flag.
However, having worked with his team to
make some adjustments to his car’s set-up, Salman suffered no more tyre
issues in the day’s second race and was rewarded with a fine second
place. After a good start from fourth, Al Khalifa avoided a collision
between Frankie Cheng and Michael Meadows on lap one to vault into
second. Settling in behind team-mate Perez, Salman produced fast,
consistent lap times and pulled away from third place Hamad Al Fardan,
building a cushion which stretched to over 19 seconds over his fellow
countryman at the flag.
A delighted Salman said: “It was
a fantastic way to end the weekend for both myself and T-Sport and I’m
delighted that I could repay them for all the hard work and positive
encouragement they have given me.
“In race one I was just pleased to
finish and score some points because my tyre issue affected the car a
lot and I had to adapt the way I drove just to get it home. At the end
of the race there were big holes in my front left as if someone had
been gouging at it with a tea spoon! We made some changes to our set-up
for race two though and things were much better. I didn’t push too hard
so I could save the tyres, but my pace was consistent and not far off
that of my team-mate Sergio, which was very pleasing.
“I’ve had my fair share of bad luck this season so to finish second is a great feeling.”
T-Sport Team Principal Russell Eacott
added: “It has been a great weekend for the team and I was really happy
for Salman to get on the podium. His performance in race two was really
strong and if we can build on what has happened this weekend then I
will be delighted.”
Salman Al Khalifa is sponsored by Unicorn Investment Bank. For more details please visit www.unicorninvestmentbank.com
