Team Abu Dhabi win in Sweden Grand Prix

posted on 09/08/2010: 55 views

The UAE's Rashid Al Tayer and Italian throttleman Giovanni Carpitella clinched the first Class 1 win of their careers on Saturday as Team Abu Dhabi took the chequered flag in the opening race of an incident-packed Swedish Grand Prix in Uddevalla.

Starting their first race together, Al Tayer and Carpitella took the advantage after race favourites Fazza and pole position winners Welmax both crashed out in separate incidents that saw the race re-started twice.

With Fazza's world champions Nader Bin Hindi and Arif Al Zafein crashed out of the race, Al Tayer and Carpitella stormed home in a race reduced to just nine laps and 47.14Nm.

Skydive Dubai's Taleb Al Saeed and Abdullah Al Muhairbi claimed second just over seven seconds adrift with Italian duo Guido Cappellini and Nicola Giorgi in third place in Primatist.

"I'm delighted to have won — it's the first Class 1 win for Abu Dhabi but I hope it will be the first of many," said Al Tayer, after his first competitive drive in the Dubai Victory Team-built boat. "It's our first race together and I'm very happy with the boat and my friend Giovanni — he is a very good throttleman."

Spectacular fashion

Al Tayer and Carpitella's win was watched from the pits by Bin Hindi and Al Zafein whose eight-race winning streak in Fazza ended in spectacular fashion after crashing into Norwegian entry Relekta, piloted by Christian Zaborowski and Paul Gaiser. "On the second restart, we came to the first turn behind Team Abu Dhabi and went to go on the inside," said Bin Heindi.

"Relekta came round on the outside, spun into our way and we couldn't avoid them. We hit them on the rear of the boat and just took off through the spray — we couldn't see anything. Fortunately we are all okay, but the boat needs a lot of work to get it ready for the race again."

It was the second crash of the day — Norway's Jorn Tandberg and Kolbjorn Selmer barrel-rolled out of the race on the first lap, an incident that forced a restart and all but ended the scarlet cat's world championship ambitions.

After starting on pole position, it was a miserable day for Tandberg and Selmer whose race lasted less than a mile before Welmax ended upside down. – Gulf News

RELATED ARTICLES

08 April 2012	Wooden powerboat Championship: Delma Marine wins race but Extreme Marine top at the end of season
12 February 2012	Powerboat Racing: Dubai's Fazza wins in Abu Dhabi
28 September 2011	Team Abu Dhabi's Al Qamzi and Al Hameli head to China for Liuzhou showdown
14 April 2011	Victory Dubai crew off to a roaring start in UIM Class 1 opener
13 April 2011	Rashed Al Tayer and John Tomlinson set to represent Team Abu Dhabi in Grand Prix

blog comments powered by Disqus