Khalid Abdullah Al Kuwari celebrates after winning the Match Race final at UIM Nations Cup in Abu Dhabi, yesterday.
ABU DHABI: Team Qatar head into the second day of the inaugural UIM Nations Cup in Abu Dhabi with the team holding little chance of winning the competition outright after an accident sidelined Mohammed Al Obaidly in yesterday’s timed trials.
But the highlight of the day was a superb performance by Team Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al Kuwari, who overcame Team Saudi Arabia’s Naeem Al Kedawi, Team Russia’s Dmitry Malkin and Team Italy’s Marco Gambi to reach a Match Race final showdown against the host nation’s Rashid Al Qemzi.
The Qatari lost the first heat of the final to the Emirati, but then Al Qemzi jump-started the last two heats and Al Kuwari was guaranteed the win in the best-of-three shoot-out.
Team Italy’s third and fourth places give them the unofficial first-day lead in the competition.
Teams from Qatar, UAE, Lebanon, Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Norway and Italy entered the two-day event, with Match Races taking centre stage yesterday and a pair of Sprint Races bringing proceedings to a close today.
Al Obaidly crashed out of the timed trials on his third lap yesterday and was not able to take part in the Match Races. He will also miss the sprint races today.
Al Kuwari faced Al Kedawi in his first heat and overcame that obstacle to win the next heat against Malkin and make the semi-finals, where he lined up alongside Team Italy’s Marco Gambi and Stefano Paoletti and Al Qemzi.
“Obviously it is disappointing for Mohammed that he cannot help us by scoring points in the sprint races tomorrow, but Khalid did a great job today, even with a bit of luck at the end,” 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.
He added: “Now, I suppose, we must look at trying to win both the sprint races.”
Team Qatar’s Al Kuwari and Al Obaidly ran for 23 laps apiece in the morning’s free practice session and set the second and ninth quickest times among the 14 entrants.
Team Italy’s Stefano Paoletti set the quickest time of the session.
Qualifying at the front of the pack was important if the Team Qatar duo were to avoid racing against each other in the first round – as was the case in Doha Bay last month.
Al Kuwari – winner of the Qatar Match Race competition last month - recorded 39 laps in the timed trials and qualified in fourth position behind the Team UAE duo of Rashid Al Qamzi and Mohammed Al Mehairbi and Team Italy’s Paoletti.
Al Obaidly ran for just two laps before crashing out of the trials. He qualified in 11th of the 13 runners, but was not able to continue. Team Saudi Arabia’s Saud Hamad did not start the session.
Today, the first of two UIM Nations Cup sprint races starts at 11.30am and the second brings the day’s action to a close from 2.30pm.THE PENINSULA
