Team Russia (winners), Team Saudi Arabia (runners-up) and Team UAE (third-place) along with QMSF officials pose on the podium after finishing in the top three at the Nations Cup in Doha yesterday.
DOHA: The Qatar Team’s Alex Carella and Shaun Torrente qualified in pole position and second place for the 10th Grand Prix of Qatar after a thrilling afternoon’s racing on Doha Bay yesterday.
The local pair dominated the second qualifying session and were the last two drivers on the water for the Q3 shoot-out. Sweden’s Jonas Andersson set the target time of 46.18 seconds and that time looked to be good enough until Torrente set a new target of 45.88 seconds and Carella went even faster with a 45.81-second lap on his first tour of the course to claim pole.
Carella’s performance was also sufficient for the Qatar Team driver to tie Finland’s Sami Selio at the top of the 2013 UIM F1 H2O Pole Position Championship standings.
Team Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al Kuwari and Mohammed Al Obaidly tried bravely to overhaul Team Russia for the inaugural Qatar Nations Cup.
They began the day three points behind their Eastern European rivals and second position for Al Kuwari in the first of the sprint races kept them in contention after Al Obaidly had retired with mechanical issues.
The Russians began the second sprint race with a 19-point advantage and the contest was all but settled in their favour at the second turn buoy of the race when Al Obaidly flipped his boat in front of a large crowd.
The Qatari escaped unharmed from the crash and the race was yellow-flagged.
“I came into the corner and there was a wave and the boat dug in and flipped over and we rolled,” said a shaken Obaidly.
He added: “The water was low and, when I escaped through the hatch, I was standing on the sea floor. It was very shallow.”
Team UAE held on to take the win after the restart and Al Kuwari’s third position meant that the host nation slipped to fourth in the final standings behind Team Russia, Team Saudi Arabia and Team UAE.
The Nations Cup was held in conjunction with the Grand Prix of Qatar, round four of the 2013 UIM F1 H2O World Championship.
“It was obviously disappointing to miss out on the Nations Cup win but the Qatar Team had a superb consolation prize with the top two places in qualifying for the Grand Prix on Saturday,” said Khalid bin Arhama Al Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), which runs under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani.
In F1 qualifying, Sami Selio laid down the gauntlet time of 47.05 seconds at the start of Q1 and that time stood the test of time for the entire Q1 session.
Torrente and Carella slotted into a safe third and fifth and duly finished the stint with the sixth and seventh times to progress to Q2. Paul Shepard, Ivan Brigada, Marit Stromoy, Valerio Lagiannella, Duarte Benavente, Bartek Marszalek and Rinaldo Osculati were eliminated.
Torrente set the quickest early time of 47.14 seconds in Q2 to virtually be assured of a place in the Q3 shoot-out, but it was soon overhauled by Selio’s time of 47.02. Carella also confirmed his place in Q3 with a time of 47.58 seconds with 12 minutes remaining.
The Qatar Team pair duly survived the Q3 cut-off, with Torrente setting the quickest lap of 46.42 seconds from his team-mate. Terry Rinker forced a yellow flag when he broke down on the course and Xiong Ziwei, Filip Roms, Ahmed Al Hameli, Francesco Cantando and Yousef Al Rubayan also fell by the wayside.
In Q3, Andersson set the target time of 46.18 seconds on his first lap but Al Qamzi’s second lap of 48.28 seconds was not enough to put him into the early lead. Selio’s first lap of 46.25 also fell short of the Swede’s time. Chiappe’s first attempt of 46.58 was not enough either and he maintained second with a second lap of 46.39 seconds.
Torrente’s first lap of 46.42 seconds put him in fourth place, but a superb second lap of 45.88 seconds gave the Qatar driver provisional pole.
Only team-mate Carella could deprive the American of pole position and the defending World Champion produced a sensational performance to grab pole with a lap of 45.81 seconds.
All 19 boats took to the water in the morning’s one-hour free practice session and Torrente and Carella clocked the second and fifth quickest times.
Phillipe Chiappe clocked a flying lap of 45.48 seconds near the end of the session to claim the fastest time. The session was yellow flagged for a time after Poland’s Bartek Marszalek flipped his Singha F1 Racing Team boat on the far side of the course.
F-4S and F1 entrants will take to the course for today’s action.
The 2013 Grand Prix of Qatar starts 3.45pm.THE PENINSULA
