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Despite the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the UAE capital, powerboat kings Nader Bin Hendi and Arif Al Zafeen failed to rule the race as home favourite Rashid Al Tayer and America’s John Tomlinson won the first leg of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, penultimate race weekend of the UIM Class 1 World Championship.
The UAE/USA pairing took the chequered flag at the end of an enthralling 53.29Nm race by more than 37 seconds from veteran Mohammed Al Marri of the UAE and Italy’s Giorgio Manuzzi in Victory 2010 with Negotiator’s Giovanni Carpitella and Class 1 rookie Luca Formilli Fendi in third a further 30 seconds adrift.
It was a remarkable win for the home Team Abu Dhabi after looking second best to Class 1 royalty Bin Hendi and Al Zafeen who seemed to have the race in the bag in Fazza 3 before pulling up with electrical failure on the penultimate 11th lap.
The Victory Team-run Fazza crew are well on the way to retaining their Class 1 crown but for once they were left helpless as their rivals swept past the stricken black cat, after what appeared to be a textbook performance by Bin Hendi and Al Zafeen.
“We have enjoyed great reliability this season but today we’ve suffered a serious engine problem with SkyDive Dubai, while Fazza 3 has missed out on victory thanks to a very minor problem,” said Victory Team General Manager Gianfranco Venturelli.
“Obviously Nader and Arif are very frustrated but on the plus side the new Victory 2010 set the fastest time in practice on Wednesday, while Mohammed and Giorgio have taken a second place finish in what is their first race together so we can take something from the race.”
With each crew needing to complete three long laps in the twelve-lap race, the Fazza strategy was to build up a big enough lead to then tackle the three long laps consecutively.
And with all three long distances under their belts by the end of lap six and a 23-second lead over their nearest competitor, Bin Hendi and Al Zafeen looked set on putting on hand on the Class 1 crown with three races remaining.
Unfortunately, powerboat racing is never that simple and the champions elect will have to wait that little bit longer if they are destined to pick up the crown for a second year in succession.
Al Zafeen and Bin Hendi were not the only ones returning to the pits earlier than they would have liked. Jorn Tandberg and Kolbjorn Selmer of Norway went into the race in pole position after setting the pre-event fastest time off the Corniche of the UAE capital but they failed to last more than one lap in Welmax, while Talib Al Sayed and Abdullah Al Mehairbi’s engine trouble in SkyDive Dubai saw them down in seventh place.
With first blood to the boys from the UAE capital, the action is back on the water again today (Friday) with practice session in the morning followed by Race 2 - 71.39Nm 16 laps, including five long laps.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Results Race 1
1. Team Abu Dhabi – Al Tayer/Tomlinson (UAE/USA) 31m:44.59s
2. Victory 2010 – Al Marri/Manuzzi (UAE/I) + 37.94s
3. Negotiator – Carpitella/Fendi (I) + 1.07.41s
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