Abu Dhabi ready for Portugal challenge
portimão (portugal) — Team Abu Dhabi heads to the scenic Portuguese Algarve region this week, as Alex Carella attempts to continue the momentum he showed with a famous victory at the Grand Prix of France two weekends ago and Thani Al Qamzi aims to bounce back from a second successive disappointment in the UIM F1 H2O World Championship.
The Grand Prix of Portugal takes place on the Arade River in Portimão on Sunday and the team out of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) has the bit between its teeth after Carella’s sensational victory in Evian catapulted the Italian to the top of the Drivers’ Championship and gave Team Abu Dhabi an eight-point advantage in the Teams’ title race. Carella also leads the UIM Pole Position series by three points from two-time World Champion Philippe Chiappe.
“The win in France was very hard fought and took everything out of me,” said the Italian. “I was very tired afterwards. No one lap was easy. The conditions were difficult, with crazy waves, and I was taking risks all the time, especially when me and Shaun (Torrente) were fighting.”
Carella won the race in France last year before being deprived of the win with a post-race technicality and now leads this year’s series by 11 points from Torrente. “This year it was our weekend in France. But Shaun will be determined to get his revenge in Portugal and we have already been in contact through social media and both of us are looking forward to what promises to be another great battle.”
Torrente may have been the major challenger in Evian, but Carella knows full well that Chiappe – who holds third in the Drivers’ Championship - endured a disappointing weekend at the last round by his exacting standards and the likes of Al Qamzi, Jonas Andersson, Ahmed Al Hameli, Erik Stark and Sami Selio all suffered their own bad luck and will be out to avenge their French setbacks.