Team Abu Dhabi stars claim pole at Grand Prix of Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY: Rashed Al Tayer and Emma-nellie Ortendahl gave Team Abu Dhabi a brilliant start to the 2020 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship on Wednesday with a double pole position success in the Grand Prix of Kuwait.

Three-times Ski Ladies GP1 champion Ortendahl launched her bid for a fourth world title by topping both qualifying sessions, ultimately outpacing her closest challenger, Latvia’s Krista Uzare, by 1.29 secs in the best of five-laps decider Al Tayer matched the Swede’s performance on her Team Abu Dhabi debut with his own flying start to the season in Runabout GP1 as he looks to repeat his opening round Grand Prix victory in Portugal last season.

Fastest in Q1 by 0.69 secs from last year’s championship runner up, Denmark’s Marcus Jorgensen, the Emirati rider went on to claim pole positon when he edged out Kuwait’s fourtime world champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq by 0.23 secs in Q2.

In Ski GP1, Victory Team’s defending champion Kevin Reiterer claimed pole position by an emphatic margin of 4.07 secs from Norway’s Ulrik Berntsen as Team Abu Dhabi’s Salman Al Awadhi qualified cautiously in 14th place.

Team Abu Dhabi’s reigning freestyle champion Rashid Al Mulla was later beginning the defence of his title less than a month after breaking his right shoulder while preparing for the start of the new season.

Pole position qualifying positions Runabout GP1

1. Rashed Al Tayer (UAE) 1:25.38

2. Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq (KWT) 1:25.61

3. Marcus Jorgensen ( Den) 1:26.07

4. Samuel Johansson (SWE) 1:29.67 5.Alejandro Molina Miranda(spa) 1:30.33

6. Rasmus Koch Hansen (DEN) 1:30.34

7. Jeremy Perez (FRA) 1:31.06

8. Ali Allanjawi (UAE) 1:31.84

9. Lorenzo Benaglia (ITA) 2:20.02

Ski Ladies GP1

1. Emma-nellie Ortendahl (SWE) 1:37.97

2. Krista Uzare (LAT) 1:39.26

3. Jonna Borgstrom ( SWE) 1:39.40

4. Jasmiin Ypraus (EST) 1:39.52

5. Estelle Poret (FRA) 1:40.92

6. Virginie Morlaes (FRA) 1:41.16

7. Sofie Borgstrom (SWE) 1:41.60

8. Jessica Chavanne (FRA) 1:42.18

9. Lisa Caussin Battagli (MCO) 1:48.22

10. Janina Johansson (SWE) 1:51.20