2012 UIM F1 H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Grand Prix of Sharjah – round 6, December 6-7
For immediate release
Monday, December 3rd, 2012
TRIUMPHANT QATAR TEAM HEADS TO GRAND PRIX
OF SHARJAH IN RELAXED AND DETERMINED MOOD
· Qatar Team eyes success in UIM F1 H20 Teams’ Championship
· Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari looks to end F-4S on a high
SHARJAH (UAE): With a second successive UIM F1 H20 World Championship title already in the bag after victory in Abu Dhabi last Friday afternoon, the Qatar Team’s Alex Carella heads to the final round of the series in Sharjah this weekend in relaxed mood.
The QMSF-backed team has again been a dominant force in the series this year and Carella has also won the UIM F1 H20 Pole Position championship with one race remaining. He and new team-mate Terry Rinker will be able to push hard from the start of the two days of action on Sharjah’s Khaled Lagoon, without the need to conserve their boats or worry about the outcome of the title race.
But there is one title that still eludes the Qatar-based team this season and that is the UIM F1 H20 Teams’ Championship that Qatar won last season. Team Abu Dhabi arrives in Sharjah with 95 points, three more than the Qatar Team and 25 more than the CTIC China Team. With Thani Al-Qamzi and Majed Al-Mansoori determined to end their season with silverware, both Carella and Rinker will be mindful that they face a difficult challenge to retain the championship.
“We can have fun and enjoy the final weekend’s racing without the pressure of trying to conserve the boats to win the championship,” admitted a delighted Khalid bin Arhama AL-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the QMSF, which runs under the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani. “But we would also like to win the Teams’ Championship to complete the clean sweep.”
With the recent news from H20 Racing that Sri Lanka will join the list of races in the 2013 calendar, this marine sporting discipline is firmly on the ascendancy and 23 drivers from 15 countries tackled the race in Abu Dhabi last Friday.
Officials are expecting the same number to enter the race in Sharjah, where the Qatar Team will again lock horns with Frenchman Phillipe Chiappe and Finland’s Sami Selio, both drivers looking to finish second in the Drivers’ Championship. Chiappe heads to Sharjah with a four-point lead over his Finnish rival.
Qatar’s former World Champion Jay Price will be hoping to make up for the disappointment of an early retirement from his return race last weekend and Britain’s Malcolm Goodman, who represented the Qatar Team in 2009, showed the potential of his new Dragon boat last weekend and will be hoping for a finish to end the year.
Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari represents the Qatar Team in the UIM F-4S Championship for the Eurofin Trophy. The Qatari holds outright fifth in the points’ standings with two races remaining, but all eyes will be on Sweden’s in-form Jesper Forss and England’s Matthew Palfreyman. Forss heads to Sharjah with a 15-point lead in the series.
Team registration, scrutineering and an optional practice session will be permitted on Wednesday (December 5) and the first of the F1 practice sessions gets underway from 09.15hrs (08.15hrs Doha time) on Thursday morning. The F-4S boats take to the water from 10.30hrs for practice, time trials and the first of their two 20-minute races and F1 qualifying starts at 15.50hrs (14.50hrs Doha time).
Boats return to the water for the start of practice at 09.15hrs on Friday morning and the F-4S crews are again centre stage from 10.30hrs. The Grand Prix of Sharjah starts at 16.00hrs (15.00hrs Doha time).
2012 UIM F1 H20 World Championship – standings after round 5
1. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 79 pts
2. Phillipe Chiappe (FRA) CTIC China Team 57 pts
3. Sami Selio (FIN) Team Mad Croc F1 53 pts
4. Ahmed Al-Hameli (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 50 pts
5. Thani Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 40 pts
6. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Singha F1 Racing Team 26 pts
7. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 17 pts
8. Stanislav Kourtsenovsky (RUS) CTIC China Team 13 pts
9. Yousef Al-Rubayan (KUW) F1 Atlantic Team 11 pts
10. Shaun Torrente (QAT) Qatar Team 10 pts, etc
2012 UIM F1 H20 Pole Position Championship – standings after round 5
1. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 82 pts
2. Sami Selio (FIN) Team Mad Croc F1 52 pts
3. Thani Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 43 pts
4. Shaun Torrente (QAT) Qatar Team 42 pts
4. Phillipe Chiappe (FRA) CTIC China Team 42 pts
6. Ahmed Al-Hameli (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 32 pts
7. Yousef Al-Rabayan (KUW) F1 Atlantic Team 21 pts
8. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Singha F1 Racing Team 10 pts
9. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 9 pts
10. Terry Rinker (QAT) Qatar Team 7 pts
2012 F-4S Drivers Eurofin Trophy – standings after race 10 of 12
1. Jesper Forss (SWE) Team Sweden 175 pts
2. Matthew Palfreyman (GBR) Atlantic Team 160 pts
3. Tobias Munthe-Kaas (NOR) Team Nautica 105 pts
4. Xiong Ziwei (CHN) CTIC China Team 67 pts
5. Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari (QAT) Qatar Team 51 pts
6. Viktor Vo (HUN) Team Mad Croc 42 pts
7. Mohamed Al-Mehairbi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 39 pts
8. Kornel Vo (HUN) Team Mad Croc 33 pts
9. Jan Andre Landsnes (NOR) Team Singha 19 pts
9. Rashed Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 19 pts
11. Valts Silis (LAT) Team Singha 13 pts
12. Bincheng Wu (CHN) CTIC China Team 5 pts
Ends
For further information:
Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, Mobile: + 44 7831 123153, E-mail: ndppublicity@googlemail.com,
www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases).
www.qmsf.org
www.f1boat.com