LIUZHOU, CHINA: The Qatar Team’s Alex Carella and Shaun Torrente will line up in pole and ninth positions for today’s Grand Prix of China on Liuzhou’s Liu River.
Carella, the defending UIM F1 H20 World Champion, was the class of the field in qualifying on Sunday and a single stunning lap of 44.60sec in his delayed Q3 shoot-out was enough to beat Finland’s Sami Selio to pole position. Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Rubayan qualified in third place.
Torrente blotted his copybook at the start of Q2 and a driving error cost him the chance of taking pole position. “I usually know where I make a mistake, but I wasn’t sure this time and it (the boat) just went round on me. I’m disappointed and angry with myself,” said Torrente, who finished in ninth place.
“I knew it was going to be between me and Alex. Now the guys have to stay up all night to fix the boat and I’m annoyed about that.”
“Alex was our hero today. He is such a good driver,” 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.
“It was disappointing for Shaun to have a spin, but he is a fighter and I am sure he will pass some drivers at the start of the race and move back up the field. The impressive thing for me was the speed of Alex in Q3. To beat Sami Selio, a former World Champion, by 1.39 seconds was very impressive!”
The Qatar Team’s Mohamad Al-Obaidly and Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari finished sixth and seventh overall in the first of the Liuzhou F-4S races. Germany’s Mike Szymura claimed pole position and went on to win the race and take a comfortable championship lead. Australian rookie Rigby Briney was second for Team Sweden.
Eighteen drivers commenced the first of the three qualifying sessions on the six-pin course on the Liu River and the six slowest would be eliminated in Q1. Phillipe Chiappe set the early target lap of 46.89sec, but that was soon eclipsed by a Torrente lap of 46.70sec and a Carella tour of 46.50sec, as the Qatar Team duo hit the front and returned to the pits to wait for Q2. Team Abu Dhabi’s Ahmed Al-Hameli won the session with a lap of 46.42sec.
Ivan Brigada failed to start and was automatically eliminated and the Italian was joined by Tomas Cermak, Xiong Ziwei, Marit Stromoy, Jesper Forss and Bartek Marszalek after Q1.
Six further boats would be eliminated in Q2 and there was disappointment for Torrente, who spun out of the session on turn four and forced a yellow flag to be raised while his boat was removed from the course.
Qualifying resumed and Carella was able to post a quickest lap of 48.16sec before an incident involving Filip Roms forced a second yellow flag and Ahmed Al-Hameli was also eliminated.
No driver was able to match Carella’s time and the Qatar driver sailed into Q3. Chiappe, Erik Stark and Thani Al-Qamzi joined Roms, Torrente and Al-Hameli on the list of eliminations.
Former World Champion Sami Selio was the first of the six racers on the course in the Q3 shoot-out and the Finn posted an opening lap of 45.99sec to set the target time. Portugal’s Duarte Benavente was unable to match the Finn on his only lap of 47.89sec and that left the door open for Sweden’s Jonas Andersson – the pole winner at the opening race in Qatar – to challenge Selio’s time.
The Qatar Team was back into winning ways from the outset on Sunday, despite the near seven-month lay-off from competitive action.
Torrente was the class of the field in the first practice session, the American posting a quickest lap of 45.42sec to beat Carella by just 0.25sec. Chiappe was third quickest with a time of 46.30sec.
Racing reaches a conclusion tomorrow today.
The Peninsula
