DOHA: The Qatar Team’s Shaun Torrente sealed victory in an action-packed and enthralling Grand Prix of Middle East — the third round of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship — in Doha Bay yesterday afternoon.
Staring from pole position, Torrente led from the start and survived three yellow-flag incidents to win by a margin of 10.32 seconds but his Qatar Team colleague, Alex Carella, swiped a turn-buoy and retired.
Frenchman Philippe Chiappe kept his title challenge alive with a second-place finish to close to within 10 points of Carella and Finland’s double world champion Sami Selio, who finished third.
Kuwait’s Yousef Al Rubayan barrel-rolled out of contention and fire damage forced both Sweden’s Jesper Forss and China’s Xiong Ziwei out of the thrilling race.
“The object of getting the pole is to get a good, clean run from the start to the first turn and then have a smooth run. All the hard work is done before the race,” said a delighted Torrente. “It’s then a matter of staying out of trouble. Every yellow flag I was thinking, oh no not again. But the conditions were good and I was able to pull away again each time. I have an awesome feeling right now. I am so happy.”
“This race had everything for the crowd,” said Khalid bin Arhama Al Kuwari, Qatar Marine Sports Federation’s (QMSF) head of formula racing. “It had fires, accidents and a fantastic result for Shaun and our team. The championship is wide open and it’s still all to play for.”
Fifteen drivers from 10 nations started the 36-lap Grand Prix of Middle East race yesterday.
Torrente and Carella stormed away from the start pontoon from pole and third positions and it was Torrente who led through the first acute left-hand turn on to the course proper, as Chiappe came under pressure from Carella.
Torrente extended his lead to 3.78 seconds through lap five, as UIM F2 champion Stark climbed from 13th to sixth.
The race was yellow-flagged after seven laps when the engines on both Xiong Ziwei’s and Jesper Forss’s boats caught fire almost simultaneously.
Action resumed on lap 11 of 36. Torrente stayed ahead and Carella sneaked inside Chiappe into the left-hand turn by the Corniche. But the race was yellow-flagged again soon afterwards when Al Rubayan clipped a rogue wave and barrel-rolled spectacularly through the corner.
Al Rubayan’s wrecked boat was removed from the course and the green flag was raised on lap 16.
Torrente held off a fierce Carella challenge from the restart and headed into lap 17 with a lead of 1.88sec. But Carella crashed into a buoy at turn five, forced a third yellow flag and was forced out of the race.
Racing resumed again on lap 21 and Torrente stayed out in front and extended his lead over Chiappe to 2.50sec through lap 24. The gap was 6.97sec after 30 laps but Torrente was not to be denied and he stayed out of trouble over the final six laps to reach the chequered flag and record his second ever GP victory.
In the second 20-lap UIM F-4S Trophy race, Khalid Abdullah Al Kuwari and Mohammed Al Obaidly started from pole and fifth positions respectively, but it developed into a disappointing race for the Qatar Team duo.
Al Obaidly crossed the finish line in fourth and Al Kuwari slipped to fifth. Germany’s Mike Szymura claimed his fourth win from five starts to extend his UIM F-4S Trophy series lead to 41 points. THE PENINSULA
