Sail-World.com : Class 1 Powerboat - Fazza quickest ahead of crunch weekend
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Class 1 Powerboat - Fazza quickest ahead of crunch weekend |
Fazza are looking firm favourites to grab the first of three trophies this weekend, in tomorrow’s Edox Pole Position qualifying session.
Arif Al Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi, who have already won three Pole Positions this year, go into the final qualifying round with a near unassailable 19-point lead and need just two points tomorrow to claim the Edox Pole Position Championship.
Despite only needing to float round the course tomorrow, Fazza went quickest by more than two-and-a-half seconds in today’s first official practice of the Emirates/Dubai Duty Free Dubai Grand Prix, with a time of 2mins 56.70secs on their home course, showing their rivals that they will be looking to take the crown in spectacular fashion.
Welmax’s Jorn Tandberg and Kolbjorn Selmer, who are currently fourth in the pole position standings and a mere two points behind Maritimo, continued their impressive form from the last round to produce the only other sub three minute lap with the second quickest time of the session completing the 4.5Nm lap in 2mins 59.23secs.
With a time of 3mins 4.46secs Victory 1’s Mohammad Al Mehairi and Jean-Marc Sanchez are some way off the pace ahead of tomorrow’s first showdown with Fazza for the World title, and the experienced Sanchez and rookie Al Mehairi will have their work cut out to ensure that they do not give too many places away during pole position ahead of tomorrow’s race 1.
The ever-impressive Giovanni Carpitella and the returning Giorgio Manuzzi, who last raced in Class 1 at the Romanian Grand Prix for Maritimo 12, in Sea Dubai-C.A.M, put together a well constructed lap posting a time of 3mins 7.20secs to go fourth quickest in the session. The lap-time was all the more impressive for the new partnership as they were only able to complete a single lap as they battled with a new restrictor configuration on their Mercury V8 engines.
Also fielding new driver partnerships were Victory 7, who promoted test driver Marwan Al Ayali into the pilot seat and Foresti & Suardi - Roscioli Hotels, who gave 2007 P1 Supersport World Champion, Fabio Magnani, his first taste of the premier class of World powerboat racing, ahead of their Class 1 debuts in tomorrow’s race 1.
Elsewhere, Maritimo suffered from engines problems restricting them to only one lap, while an electrical fault prevented Giorgioffshore from posting any competitive times.
EMIRATES/DUBAI DUTY FREE DUBAI GRAND PRIX - FIRST PRACTICE OFFICIAL TIMES
1. Fazza 3 - A Al Zafeen (UAE) / N Bin Hendi (UAE) - 02.56,70
2. Welmax - K Selmer (NOR) / J Tandberg (NOR) - 02.59,23
3. Victory 1 - M Al Mehairi (UAE) / JM Sanchez (FRA) - 03.04,46
4. Sea Dubai - C.A.M. - G Manuzzi (SMR) / G Carpitella (ITA) - 03.07,20
5. Maritimo 11 - T Barry-Cotter (AUS) / PV Nilsen (NOR) - 03.10,21
6. Victory 7 - M Al Ayali (UAE) / M Al Marri (UAE) - 03.16,90
7. Foresti & Suardi-Roscioli Hotels - F Magnani (ITA) / G Montavoci (ITA) - 03.18,03
8. Giorgioffshore - C Zaborowski (NOR) / N Giorgi (ITA) - 03.47,95
http://www.class-1.com
by Class 1 media Share
9:36 PM Thu 10 Dec 2009 GMT
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