Victory at Monza maintains title lead for Haytham Qarajouli in Ligier European Series

Haytham Qarajouli returned to the top step of the Ligier European Series podium last weekend with a commanding performance at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy.

In a perfect start to the Monza weekend, Qarajouli topped the Ligier European Series free practice times, leading the way in FP1.

However, at the tail end of the FP2 session, a sudden driveshaft failure meant the #75 car had to retire early, the RLR MSport crew jumped into action and made the repairs just before qualifying an hour later.

The young driver from Kuwait then went on to top the Q1 times to secure Pole position for race one and later that afternoon became the only driver to breach the 2-minute barrier with a new lap record for the JS2 R car of 1m59s, and subsequently celebrated another Pole position for race two.

In the sweltering Italian heat, Qarajouli duly led the field away in the first race, drawing out a three-second advantage, with the last of the Ligier JSP4 prototypes providing a useful buffer between him and the nearest JS2 R cars. 

Frustratingly, Qarajouli’s advantage lead was stymied by an early Safety Car period and, although he recorded purple fastest sector times after the restart, he couldn’t quite shake the attentions of the hard-charging Oltramare and Caussanel.

The trio traded places in a hugely entertaining three-way battle until the RLR MSport team pre-empted a second Safety Car period and as per the rules took the early opportunity to box both the #75 car of Qarajouli and #40 team-mate Felbermayr.

However, other drivers who stayed out a little longer were able to continue apace on their next lap to the pits and leapfrog ahead of the slower moving Safety Car train, thus gaining a whole lap on both RLR MSport contenders and a few other drivers who had made that early pitstop.

The safety car had picked up the #44 car, which then slowed Qarajouli, now backed up behind the leading JSP4 car, unfortunately there was nothing that championship leader could do to make up the lap that impacted him by the slow-moving safety car.

When the safety car did eventually return to the pits Haytham’s pace was such that he gained approximately one minute on the eventual third-place finisher at the resumption of racing, but he was ultimately locked in to disappointing fourth place by the chequered flag.

Keen to right the disappointment of the first race, Qarajouli stood firm in P1 when the lights went out at the start of race two later Saturday afternoon. 

Another early Safety Car intervention this time caused no issues, and eventually Qarajouli was able to break free of the pack the duration of extended first stints that took them to lap 14 and the end of the pit stop window.

Qarajouli pushed on to his fourth victory of the 2022 season, gaining valuable points taking his tally to 142 for the season so far, with nearest rival Frenchman Laurent Millara on 85 points, Haytham is aiming for a maximum point haul for upcoming race at Spa-Francorchamps on Sept 23/24th.

“The way race one panned out was completely out of my hands and, while it’s disappointing to be denied a chance to fight for a podium or even victory to the finish, but I’m super happy to have achieved a win in race two, to show what the car can do and demonstrate my abilities on the hallowed ground at Monza,” said Qarajouli. “I’m particularly proud to have set a new Ligier JS2 R lap record at Monza. I hope it stands for some time.”

“We experienced extremely hot weather conditions all weekend, but the car was great and RLR MSport were fantastic throughout as always. The victory keeps me at the head of the championship so my title hopes are well and truly alive. I’m now looking forward to taking some time out during the summer break to spend with family. I’m extremely excited for the next round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in September.”

“I also want to say a huge thank you to my sponsors, family and friends who make all this possible, and I'm proud as always to represent my home country of Kuwait at the European circuits.”