2012 UIM F1 H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Grand Prix of Ukraine – round 3, July 20-21
For immediate release
Saturday, July 21st, 2012
2012 GRAND PRIX OF UKRAINE POSTPONED UNTIL SUNDAY
BECAUSE OF HEAVY RAIN AND STRONG WINDS ON KIEV SEA
· Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari finishes sixth in second F-4S race
VYSHGOROD (Ukraine): Strong winds and heavy rain forced race organisers to postpone the 2012 Grand Prix of Ukraine on the Kiev Sea at Vychgorod, near Kiev, on Saturday afternoon.
The F1 race will now take place on Sunday afternoon at 15.00hrs, although the F-4S Eurofin Trophy race did go ahead on Saturday morning.
The Qatar Team’s Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari qualified in sixth position and finished in a similar position in the second of the weekend’s F-4S races for the Eurofin Trophy.
England’s Matthew Palfreyman claimed pole position in his bid for a fifth win from six starts and he led from start-to-finish to extend his championship lead over Sweden’s Jesper Forss to 20 points.
F-4S Eurofin Trophy
Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari set the fifth fastest time in Saturday morning’s second free practice session. Matthew Palfreyman won the stint with a quickest tour of 46.78s.
The Qatari then headed straight into the time trials and ran for 17 laps, posting a quickest tour of 49.12s to confirm sixth position for the race. Palfreyman won the session with a lap of 46.65s to claim pole position.
The Englishman moved into the lead shortly after the start of the race and had opened up a gap of six seconds over Forss by lap four, with Al-Kuwari down in sixth position. Palfreyman’s lead had grown to 7.91 seconds after 10 laps but it was pegged back to 4.55 seconds after 16 laps, as Al-Kuwari maintained sixth position.
Forss was now on a charge and the lead wad whittled down to 3.85 seconds through lap 17 and to 2.5 seconds after the 18th lap. Forss closed to within 0.91 seconds on the next lap and a gripping finale was in prospect with the pair pulling away from the rest of the field.
Palfreyman pushed again on lap 20 to extend his advantage to 1.25 seconds, but the Sweden came back at him again to reduce the lead to 0.78 seconds. The series leader held on to reach the chequered flag 1.08 seconds in front of Forss, with Al-Kuwari finishing in sixth position.
2012 F-4S Drivers Eurofin Trophy – standings after race 6
1. Matthew Palfreyman (GBR) Atlantic Team 115 pts
2. Jesper Forss (SWE) Team Sweden 95 pts
3. Tobias Munthe-Kaas (NOR) Team Nautica 60 pts
4. Xiong Ziwei (CHN) CTIC China Team 47 pts
5. Kornel Vo (HUN) Team Mad Croc 30 pts
6. Mohamed Al-Mehairbi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 21 pts
6. Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari (QAT) Qatar Team 21 pts
8. Rashed Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 14 pts
9. Valts Silis (LAT) Team Singha 13 pts
10. Viktor Vo (HUN) Team Mad Croc 10 pts
11. Jan Andre Landsnes (NOR) Team Singha 8 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