Team Abu Dhabi drivers will be going flat out to win big points in Budapest on Sunday after their disappointing seventh round of the Porsche Mobile 1 Supercup at Hockenheim in Germany.
Sascha Maassen, Sean Edwards and Khaled al Qubaisi all struggled with Germany's wet and windy conditions last weekend.
But the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority-backed team believe the 4.381km Hungaroring track in Hungary and the sweltering summer temperatures there will suit them better.
"We know it is going to be an important race in Budapest, so we have to come out with all cylinders firing," said al Qubaisi, who has made impressive strides this season. "We know what we have to do, and we want to be at the top in qualifying for sure."
The Abu Dhabi team are currently sitting sixth in the overall team standings.
At Hockenheim, Maassen came in 12th, Edwards was 19th and al Qubaisi finished 21st. In the drivers' standings Maassen is 11th, Edwards 12th and al Qubaisi is 21st out of 23.
Al Qubaisi, the rising Emirati star, knows that with the narrow Hungaroring track boasting only limited overtaking opportunities, it will be an all out sprint for pole.
The team faced drama at Hockenheim circuit when Edwards and al Qubaisi spun on the drenched track .
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
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Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
