SHARJAH, UAE: Qatar Team’s Khalid Abdullah Al Kuwari qualified in fifth position for the penultimate F-4S race of the season and finished the race in third position in the Grand Prix of Sharjah on Khalid Lagoon yesterday.
England’s Matthew Palfreyman qualified second behind arch series rival Jesper Forss of Sweden and managed to beat his rival and reduce the Swede’s championship lead to 10 points with one race remaining today afternoon. It was Palfreyman’s sixth win from 11 starts; Forss has five wins.
Meanwhile, Qatar Team’s Alex Carella and Terry Rinker qualified in sixth and seventh positions for today’s Grand Prix of Sharjah in a thrilling trio of qualifying sessions.
Carella has already clinched the 2012 UIM F1 H20 World Championship, Pole Position and Fast Lap Slam Trophy titles and heads into the final race of the season keen to add the Teams’ title to Qatar’s list of achievements.
Fractions of a second separated the leading drivers in a thrilling Q3 session in Sharjah and Finland’s Sami Selio snatched pole position with a fastest lap of 46.71sec. Sweden’s Jonas Andersson qualified second and former Qatar Team driver Jay Price was third to set up a thrilling finale to another successful year of F1 H20 racing.
“This is a tough course and the Qatar Team has never done well here,” admitted 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.
“This has never been our course and it seems difficult for the DAC boats. But our goal is to win all four titles and I am confident that Alex and Terry can do what they have to do tomorrow and achieve that target.”
Five of the 20 starters would be eliminated from the first 20-minute qualifying session. Phillipe Chiappe was the first driver to break the 50-second barrier and move to the top of the leader board, as Rinker and Carella slotted into second and ninth places after five minutes. Selio moved into the lead with 12 minutes remaining and Rinker and Carella held a safe third and seventh.
In the F-4S race, Forss set the pace in the free practice session with a lap of 37.09sec to beat series rival Matthew Palfreyman by 0.35sec. Qatar’s Khalid settled into fifth position. It was a similar situation in the qualifying session with Forss beating Palfreyman to pole position and Khalid qualifying in fifth position for the 28-lap race.
The Grand Prix of Sharjah starts at 4.00pm (3.00pm Doha time).The peninsula
