Carella confident of staying on form for Victory
Much-anticipated duel with Team Abu Dhabi’s Torrente expected to light up opening round
Victory Team’s defending four-time world champion Alex Carella was pleased with early form heading into the opening round of the 2018 UIM F1H2O World Championship.
It was Carella laying down the early marker in the muchanticipated inter-UAE duel as the Italian clocked the fastest time during Friday’s unofficial practice at the Grand Prix of Portimao in Portugal.
Touted as the new season’s most anticipated tussle between the defending four-time world champion Carella and Team Abu Dhabi’s Shaun Torrente, it was the Italian heading into the actual racing weekend with a slight edge after posting the fastest time towards the closing stages of the 90-minute session.
Much is being expected from the two drivers following their team swap at the end of last year with the talented Torrente walking off to join Team Abu Dhabi, while Victory Team coaxed Carella to switch over to the Dubai outfit. On Friday, the world champion and his American opponent from Team Abu Dhabi traded quick times with Carella posting the best time of 41.80 seconds on his 50th lap to edge Torrente into second place by just 0.26 seconds.
Brand new boats
“I am extremely pleased with what we have achieved with this new boat so far. This has been a good start, but the main work will have to follow from
now on during the next two days of this race,” Carella told Gulf News.
It was an impressive showing on the Arade River with both drivers taking to their brandnew boats with much enthusiasm — Carella in the all-new Victory-designed-and-built hull and Torrente in his latest generation DAC hull.
“This is a great boat. It’s like a rocket ship,” Torrente said of his boat.
“I am really thrilled, but the best part is that we have done what we expected to do after so much of testing coming into the Grand Prix of Portimao,” the American added.
Sweden’s Jonas Andersson was also in his elements, bringing his brand-new boat home in third spot posting a 42.17s lap, with teammate Erik Edin also impressing, tenth of a second shy.
Philippe Chiappe and Erik Stark, a last-minute replacement for the unwell Mike Szymura, completed a top six lineup separated by just 0.97s, with former four-time world champion Chiappe coming in fourth fastest with a time of 42.33 secs and Stark with a 42.76 secs lap.
This has been a good start, but the main work will have to follow from now on during the next two days of this race.” Alex Carella » Victory Team’s defending world champion