Team Abu Dhabi’s Carella claims pole for home grand prix
Al Qamzi and Al Mehairbi finish second and fourth in F-4S race; victory for Finn Nyholm
Team Abu Dhabi’s Alex Carella is perfectly positioned to challenge for victory in today’s 24th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi after qualifying in pole position for the penultimate round of the 2015 UIM F1 H2O World Championship.
The Italian reached the sixboat Q3 shoot-out and posted a storming second lap of 45.86 seconds in ideal racing conditions on the challenging Abu Dhabi course.
Finland’s double world champion Sami Selio pushed Carella all the way but came up just short with a time of 46.99 seconds to finish in second place.
Defending champion and current series leader Phlippe Chiappe posted a tour best of 47.33 sec and will start the race in third. Kuwait’s Yousef Al Rubayan had laid down the Q3 gauntlet with a best time of 47.47 seconds and qualified in fourth place.
Emirati Ahmad Al Hameli qualified fifth with a lap of 48.94 seconds, but Jonas Andersson spluttered through his opening lap before suffering fuel issues that prevented him from recording a time.
Meanwhile, Thani Al Qamzi will start the race from 17th place in the second Team Abu Dhabi boat after he suffered ongoing engine issues at the start of his warm-up lap in Q1.
“We broke an engine in practice this morning and then damaged the second one and decided to make just one lap to give ourselves a time before we change the engine again tonight,” said Thani. “I still feel I can do well tomorrow. This is my home race and it’s important that I make a good result.”
Mixed fortunes
Rashid Al Qamzi and Mohammad Al Mehairbi are representing Team Abu Dhabi in this weekend’s two UIM F-4S races and the duo suffered mixed fortunes in the first of the timed trials.
Rashed qualified in second position behind pole winner Finland’s Anton Nyholm, but Al Mehairbi was down in fifth. Series leader Mike Szymura struggled with technical issues and qualified in eighth of the nine entrants.
Rashed made a poor start to the 18-lap race and found himself in traffic at the first turn. The resultant delay pushed him down the leader board to fifth shortly before a yellow flag was raised with Bingchen Wu sidelined on the opening lap and Paolo Longhi also in trouble. Action resumed on lap six and Nyholm began to pull away from the pack, with Rashed moving back into second place and Al Mehairbi holding fifth.