2011 UIM F1 H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Grand Prix of Ukraine, Vyshgorod – round 4, July 28th-30th
For immediate release
Friday, July 29th, 2011
QATAR’S PRICE AND CARELLA QUALIFY IN SECOND
AND THIRD FOR INAUGURAL GRAND PRIX OF UKRAINE
· Pole Position falls to Ahmed Al-Hameli for Saturday’s race
· Qatar’s Khalid Al-Shamlan spins out of first Ukraine F-4S race
VYSHGOROD (Ukraine): The Qatar Team’s Jay Price and Alex Carella qualified in second and third positions for the inaugural Grand Prix of Ukraine at Vyshgorod in the Kiev region of Ukraine on Friday.
In perfect race conditions on the Kiev Sea, the DAC drivers hovered around the top three times throughout the three qualifying sessions and shadowed Team Abu Dhabi’s Ahmed Al-Hameli to the end of the stint to land perfect starting positions for the race on Saturday.
Qatar’s Khalid Saleh Al-Shamlan spun after hitting a buoy and forced a yellow flag situation on the first lap of the day’s UIM F-4S race. The Qatari had set the second fastest time in the morning’s practice session and qualified in fourth place for the race.
England’s Matthew Palfreyman reached the chequered flag ahead of his rivals to boost his title chances after seven races, but Al Shamlan maintains a slender championship lead.
“I am happy with the second and third positions,” admitted Khalid Bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), which runs under the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani.
“Ahmed Al-Hameli got the pole, but he has no points in the championship and is not a threat to us at this stage. Now the aim is for Jay or Alex to win the race. The hospitality and organisation has been fantastic here in Ukraine. Everything has worked like clockwork and I would like to thank everyone for the help and support so far. It is one of the nicest venues we have attended.
“Khalid (Al-Shamlan) hit a buoy and the boat spun and he made contact with another boat and it started to sink. It will be touch and go whether the boat can be repaired in time for him to race on Saturday.”
Timed trials
Ahmed Al-Hameli set the early target of 49.78s in the first of the three qualifying sessions and Price, chasing his first podium of the season, slotted into second with a 50.17s tour. Carella moved up to third with eight minutes of the session to eliminate three of the 18 drivers remaining.
Davide Padovan, Rinaldo Osculati and Phillipe Tourre failed to qualify for the second session, as Price and Carella were classified in second and third behind Al-Hameli.
Five drivers would be eliminated from Q2 and Price and Carella nestled into the top three from the start. Carella was pushed down to fourth place by Thani Al-Qamzi, but the Qatar duo safely made the final shoot-out for pole position in third and second. Valerio Lagiannella, Duarte Benavente, Stanislav Kurtesnovsky, Bartek Marszalek and Phillipe Chiappe were all eliminated.
Price slotted into second behind Al-Hameli with a 49.17s lap at the start of the final quarter-hour session. But Price took the lead on his fourth lap with a 48.82s only to be beaten again by Al-Hameli (48.41s). Carella moved into third with a lap of 49.45s and improved with a 49.16s tour.
The Qatar duo held station into the closing minutes and qualified for the first race in Ukraine in second and third positions, with pole-sitter Al-Hameli grinding to a halt with mechanical problems with three minutes of the session remaining.
Price and Carella were up amongst the front-runners in the morning’s free practice session with Jay clocking the fastest lap of 49.50s during his 30 laps on the new course. Carella ran his DAC for 27 laps and recorded the third fastest time of 50.00s.
F-4S
Al-Shamlan was second quickest in the morning’s free practice session after recording a fastest lap of 1m 03.42s. Matthew Palfreyman won the stint with a 1m 01.81s, but Al-Shamlan was confident for the all-important timed trials.
The Qatari began steadily but was pushed down to fifth place in the qualifying session by Bimba Sjoholm, Xiong Ziwei, Filip Roms and Palfreyman. Al-Shamlan eventually finished the timed trials in fourth on the grid for the first of the weekend’s races after moving up the order in the latter stages of the session. Palfreyman overhauled Sjoholm to snatch pole position.
The race was yellow flagged on the first lap after an incident involving Al-Shamlan. Palfreyman maintained a slender lead over Ziwei after the restart and continued to edge clear to reach the chequered flag 8.97s in front of the Chinese. Despite his retirement, Al-Shamlan maintained a slender lead in the chase for the Eurofin Trophy.
Saturday’s racing timetable includes a free practice session for the F1 and F-4S teams, before the F-4S timed trials get underway at 14.00hrs (Doha time). The second of Al-Shamlan’s F-4S races begins at 16.00hrs and the Grand Prix of Ukraine fires into life at 19.00hrs (Doha time).
2011 Grand Prix of Ukraine – timed trial results
1. Ahmed Al-Hameli (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 48.41s
2. Jay Price (QAT) Qatar Team 48.82s
3. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 49.16s
4. Sami Selio (FIN) Team Mad Croc F1 49.58s
5. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 49.61s
6. Thani Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 49.67s
7. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Singha F1 Racing Team 49.76s
8. Marit Stromoy (NOR) Team Nautica 49.97s
9. Shaun Torrente (USA) Team Sweden 50.80s
10. Pierre Lundin (SWE) CTIC China Team 50.84s
2011 UIM F1 H20 Pole Position Championship – standings after round 4 (unofficial)
1. Jay Price (QAT) Qatar Team 54 pts
2. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 50 pts
3. Sami Selio (FIN) Team Mad Croc F1 38 pts
4. Ahmed Al-Hameli (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 35 pts
5. Thani Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 22 pts
6. Shaun Torrente (USA) Team Sweden 20 pts
6. Marit Stromoy (NOR) Team Nautica 20 pts
8. Phillipe Chiappe (FRA) CTIC China Team 14 pts
9. Davide Padovan (ITA) Team Mad Croc F1 12 pts
10. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 7 pts
2011 UIM F-4S Championship – standings after race 7
1. Khaled Saleh Al-Shamlan (QAT) Qatar Team 86 pts
2. Bimba Sjolholm (SWE) Team Sweden 84 pts
3. Matthew Palfreyman (GBR) Team Atlantic 83 pts
4. Filip Roms (FIN) Team Mad Croc 73 pts
5. Xiong Ziwei (CHN) Team China 56 pts
6. Tobias Munthe-Kaas (NOR) Team Nautica 51 pts
7. Majed Al-Mansoori (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 33 pts
8. Christian Carlsen (NOR) Team Singha 19 pts
9. Kristoffer Fjelde (NOR) Team Singha 5 pts
10. Valts Silis (LAT) Team Singha 5 pts
Ends
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