2012 UIM F1 H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Grand Prix of Sharjah – round 6, December 6-7
For immediate release
Thursday, December 6th, 2012
QATAR TEAM DUO OF CARELLA AND RINKER QUALIFY
SIXTH AND SEVENTH FOR GRAND PRIX OF SHARJAH
· Pole Position for Finland’s Sami Selio in Grand Prix of Sharjah
· Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari finishes third in F-4S race
SHARJAH (UAE): The Qatar Team’s Alex Carella and Terry Rinker qualified in sixth and seventh positions for Friday afternoon’s Grand Prix of Sharjah in a thrilling trio of qualifying sessions on Khalid Lagoon on Thursday.
Carella has already clinched the 2012 UIM F1 H20 World Championship, Pole Position and Fast Lap Slam Trophy titles and heads into the final race of the season keen to add the Teams’ title to Qatar’s list of achievements.
Fractions of a second separated the leading drivers in a thrilling Q3 session in Sharjah and Finland’s Sami Selio snatched pole position with a fastest lap of 46.71sec. Sweden’s Jonas Andersson qualified second and former Qatar Team driver Jay Price was third to set up a thrilling finale to another successful year of F1 H20 racing.
“This is a tough course and the Qatar Team has never done well here,” admitted 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.
“This has never been our course and it seems difficult for the DAC boats. But our goal is to win all four titles and I am confident that Alex and Terry can do what they have to do tomorrow and achieve that target.”
Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari qualified in fifth position for the penultimate F-4S race of the season and finished the race in third. England’s Matthew Palfreyman qualified second behind arch series rival Jesper Forss of Sweden and managed to beat his rival and reduce the Swede’s championship lead to 10 points with one race remaining on Friday afternoon. It was Palfreyman’s sixth win from 11 starts; Forss has five wins.
Qualifying
Five of the 20 starters would be eliminated from the first 20-minute qualifying session. Phillipe Chiappe was the first driver to break the 50-second barrier and move to the top of the leader board, as Rinker and Carella slotted into second and ninth places after five minutes. Selio moved into the lead with 12 minutes remaining and Rinker and Carella held a safe third and seventh.
Carella set a needed lap of 49.92sec to storm into fourth place behind Selio, Jonas Andersson and Chiappe and Rinker survived in fifth to reach Q2. Rinaldo Osculati, Ivan Brigada, Phillipe Tourre, Valerio Lagiannella and Filip Roms were eliminated.
Five more boats would leave the fray in the 15 minutes of Q2 and Chiappe again laid down the gauntlet with a hot lap of 48.74sec, which was beaten by Jay Price’s stunning time of 47.91sec. The Qatar duo held sixth and seventh heading into the final seven minutes.
Price won the session and the Qatar duo qualified in sixth and eighth. Stanislav Kurtsenovskiy, Malcolm Goodman, Duarte Benavente, Scott Gillman and Yousef Al-Rubayan were eliminated, a canopy bird strike not helping the Kuwaiti’s cause.
Swede Erik Stark set the target time of 48.29sec on his second lap and Francesco Cantando edged inside with a better time of 48.17sec. Rinker was next on the water and posted a 48.61sec first lap and snatched top spot with a second tour of 47.84sec.
Marit Stromoy moved into a provisional second with a lap of 48.16sec, as Qatar’s World Champion Carella took to the water and snatched pole position with a stunning opening lap of 47.64sec. Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi was next out and the Emirati snatched the top spot from Carella with an opening lap of 47.33sec.
Chiappe displaced Carella and Rinker with his first lap of 47.49sec, but he was not able to beat Al-Qamzi. Andersson was also quicker with his first tour of 47.46sec and then snatched pole position with a lap of 46.89sec. Only Selio and Price could prevent the Swede from taking pole into Friday’s race.
The Finn managed to beat the Swede with a lap of 46.75sec and bettered his pole time with a 46.71sec second lap. Former Qatar driver Jay Price stood in the way of Selio and pole position, but he only managed a 47.25sec lap, as Selio confirmed pole position and the Qatar duo finished sixth and seventh with Price slotting into third.
The Qatar Team duo had set the third and fifth quickest times in the morning’s free practice session, with Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Rubayan running well to record the quickest lap of 48.83sec. Rinker ran for 30 laps to record the third quickest time and Carella was fifth. China’s Xiong Ziwei flipped spectacularly out of the action.
F-4S
Jesper Forss set the pace in the morning’s F-4S free practice session with a lap of 37.09sec to beat series rival Matthew Palfreyman by 0.35sec. Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari settled into fifth position. It was a similar situation in the qualifying session with Forss beating Palfreyman to pole position and Al-Kuwari qualifying in fifth position for the 28-lap race.
Palfreyman managed to steal a march on Forss through lap one and extended his advantage to 2.43sec through lap two, as Al-Kuwari climbed to third. By one-quarter distance, Palfreyman’s lead had grown to 3.95sec, with Al-Kuwari a distant third and coming under pressure from Thomas Munthe-Kaas. Palfreyman’s lead was 8.68sec at the halfway point as the leaders began to lap the backmarkers and Al-Kuwari maintained third position from Munthe-Kaas, but began to come under even more pressure as the race reached lap 20.
Palfreyman held on to reach the chequered flag 14.44 seconds in front of Forss to reduce the Swede’s series lead to 10 points with one race remaining. Al-Kuwari finished third to consolidate his fifth place in the championship.
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 Grand Prix of Sharjah – qualifying results
1. Sami Selio (FIN) Mad Croc F1 Team 46.71sec
2. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 46.89sec
3. Jay Price (USA) Skydive Dubai 47.25sec
4. Thani Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 47.33sec
5. Phillipe Chiappe (FRA) CTIC China Team 47.49sec
6. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 47.64sec
7. Terry Rinker (QAT) Qatar Team 47.84sec
8. Marit Stromoy (NOR) Team Nautica 48.16sec
9. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Singha F1 Racing Team 48.17sec
10. Erik Stark (SWE) Team Sweden 48.29sec
2012 UIM F1 H20 Pole Position Championship – final standings
1. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 87 pts
2. Sami Selio (FIN) Team Mad Croc F1 72 pts
3. Thani Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 52 pts
4. Phillipe Chiappe (FRA) CTIC China Team 49 pts
5. Shaun Torrente (QAT) Qatar Team 42 pts
6. Ahmed Al-Hameli (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 32 pts
7. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 24 pts
8. Yousef Al-Rabayan (KUW) F1 Atlantic Team 21 pts
9. Jay Price (USA) Skydive Dubai 12 pts
10. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Singha F1 Racing Team 10 pts
11. Terry Rinker (QAT) Qatar Team 7 pts
2012 F-4S Drivers Eurofin Trophy – standings after race 11 of 12
1. Jesper Forss (SWE) Team Sweden 190 pts
2. Matthew Palfreyman (GBR) Atlantic Team 180 pts
3. Tobias Munthe-Kaas (NOR) Team Nautica 114 pts
4. Xiong Ziwei (CHN) CTIC China Team 67 pts
5. Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari (QAT) Qatar Team 56 pts
6. Kornel Vo (HUN) Team Mad Croc 45 pts
7. Mohamed Al-Mehairbi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 39 pts
8. Viktor Vo (HUN) Team Mad Croc 34 pts
9. Rashed Al-Qamzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 26 pts
10. Jan Andre Landsnes (NOR) Team Singha 24 pts
11. Valts Silis (LAT) Team Singha 13 pts
12. Bincheng Wu (CHN) CTIC China Team 8 pts
Ends
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www.qmsf.org
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