Rally d’Italia Sardegna, June 20-22
FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), round 7

For immediate release
Sunday, June 23rd, 2013

SKYDIVE DUBAI RALLY TEAM’S RASHID AL-KETBI
CLAIMS TOP 20 FINISH IN SARDINIAN RALLY TEST

· Frenchman Ogier takes overall Sardinian victory for Volkswagen
· Poland’s Robert Kubica wins WRC2 category; Al-Kuwari in second

OLBIA (Sardinia): Skydive Dubai Rally Team driver Rashid Al-Ketbi and German co-driver Karina Hepperle finished 18th overall and third in the N4 class in the Rally d’Italia Sardegna, round seven of the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship, on Saturday evening.

The Dubai driver was delighted with his performance on the demanding 16-stage event, which he used as a practice rally before taking delivery of a brand new Ford Fiesta R5 in time for Rally Finland in August.

“This was all about gaining experience and reaching the finish,” said Al-Ketbi. “It was an enjoyable rally and useful for me. We finished well and third in N4. Now I can look forward to the delivery of the R5 and push on from there. It was a fantastic rally, never easy and certainly demanding on the concentration.”

Volkswagen Motorsport’s Sébastien Ogier controlled proceedings at the head of the field to take victory from Belgium’s Thierry Neuville by the margin of 1min 16.8sec and extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 64 points.

Pole Robert Kubica won the WRC 2 category, although Qatar’s Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari continues to lead the series by 15 points after finishing second.

The Skydive Dubai Rally Team is running in the 2013 WRC under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, and is backing the UAE’s bid for EXPO 2020.

Al-Ketbi had held 21st overall and third in the N4 class at the end of day one after eight stages on Friday. Ogier held an overall lead of 46.6 seconds from Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen and Robert Kubica was in control in the WRC 2 category. But Al-Ketbi used his gravel rallying experience to move up the leader board and reach the top 20 in preparation of the delivery of the new R5 car in July.

Ends

Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, UK mobile: + 44 7831 123153, E-mail: ndppublicity@googlemail.com
www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases)

www.wrc.com

Published On: 23 June 2013