- The Spanish driver, together with Jaume Betriu, finished fourth among the World Cup drivers in his first race under the Nasser Racing structure.
- Despite technical problems in his Taurus T3 Max, the Pons Rallysport team managed to finish the race, and has a seven-point lead over its closest rival.
- "We leave Qatar with positive feelings, as I think the team is solid and has great potential. We will have to solve the problems we have experienced, but I am confident that the team of engineers and mechanics will do a good job."
Eduard Pons overcame a demanding and complicated Qatar International Baja, the sixth stop of the FIA Baja World Cup. The driver from Lleida arrived in Qatar as leader in the Challenger category, with the aim of defending this position in a race that promised to be especially challenging. After covering more than 500 timed kilometers of a tough race and having to deal with technical problems in his Taurus T3 Max, Pons used his experience and intelligence to finish fourth among the drivers of the World Championship and continue as the first classified of the championship, now with a seven-point lead over Khalid Aljafla, his main rival in the fight for the title.
For the first time under the Nasser Racing structure, Pons started in Qatar an intense three-race tour of the Arabian Peninsula that will mark the closing of the 2024 season at the end of the month. The race, very technical and with complicated dunes, began on Thursday with the prologue stage, where the driver from Lleida, along with his co-driver Jaume Betriu, set a high pace to place first among the drivers of the Challenger category and fourth in the absolute classification.
On Friday, a day in which the competitors had to complete two special stages and 256 km against the clock, the duo from Lleida went out with the desire to squeeze all the potential of the team and, despite a solid start, a miscalculation with the fuel forced them to slow down in the second stage of the day. This, together with the complexity of the navigation, conditioned a first stage in which they finished fourth among the drivers competing in the Cup.
"We made a good set-up of the vehicle, which allowed us to be very competitive in the prologue. In the first stage, it was a pity we had to lift our foot to avoid running out of fuel. In addition, the navigation was extremely difficult, which caused us to lose valuable time. However, we ran with our heads and met our goal of getting the car to the finish line,” said Pons.
In the second and final stage, with 250 km to go, Pons Rallysport set itself the goal of trying to make up time without taking any risks, in order to secure points for its fight for the world title. However, already in the liaison, his car began to present engine temperature problems that were reproduced in the special stage. Inevitably, this forced Pons to drive very cautiously and at very low speed in order to see the checkered flag, which he finally crossed in a fourth position among the drivers in the World Championship that keeps him in the lead.
"On Saturday we started very well, but when we were catching up with one of our rivals, the temperature alarm went off, so we had to change the map to try to cool the engine. In the end, we finished the stage without racing, as we were gambling with the engine and a 0 in the standings," explained the driver.
"We leave Qatar with positive feelings, as I think Nasser Racing is a solid structure with great potential. We will have to solve the technical problems we have experienced, but I am confident that the team of engineers and mechanics will do a good job. We are competitive and we face the final stretch with a lot of desire to go all out and fight until the end”, he concludes.
The next round of the calendar will be the Baja Jordan, from November 14 to 16, penultimate round in which he will seek to consolidate his position in the standings to go to the last round with the best possible chances of winning the title.
Automatic translation of the Spanish version
Source: Pons Rallysport / Mediagé Comunicación
