Al-Qassimi to combine WRC with Middle East bid

Khalid Al-Qassimi will return to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2013 but don’t count on him being an ever-present.

Al-Qassimi sat out the entire 2012 season but will resume his bid for WRC success with the Abu Dhabi-backed factory Citroen team next year.

However, with the Emirati also tackling the FIA Middle East series in a Citroen DS3 RRC, Al-Qassimi’s world championship campaign will be restricted.

“It will not be a full programme due to the fact he will do the Middle East championship,” Citroen head Yves Matton told WRC.com. “He wants to be champion in the Middle East and some rallies the dates are together so he cannot be on all events. But we will have on each [WRC] event three cars in the team.”

Although he stopped short of revealing Al-Qassimi’s WRC schedule when quizzed during RallyRACC-Rally de Espana, Matton did confirm he would undertake a number of tests during the course of next season.