The UAE's Rashid Al Tayer and Italian throttleman Giovanni Carpitella clinched the first Class 1 win of their careers yesterday (Saturday) as Team Abu Dhabi took the chequered flag in the opening race of an incident-packed Swedish Grand Prix in Uddevalla.
Starting their first race together, Al Tayer and Carpitella took advantage after race favourites Fazza and pole position winners Welmax both crashed out in separate incidents that saw the race re-started twice.
With Fazza's world champions Nader Bin Hendi and Arif Al Zafeen out of the race, Al Tayer and Carpitella stormed home in a race reduced to just nine laps and 47.14Nm. Skydive Dubai's Talib El Sayed and Abdullah Al Mehairbi claimed second just over seven seconds adrift with Italian duo Guido Cappellini and Nicola Giorgi in third place in Primatist.
"I'm delighted to have won – it's the first Class 1 win for Abu Dhabi but I hope it will be the first of many," said Al Tayer, after his first competitive drive in the Dubai Victory Team-built boat "It's our first race together and I'm very happy with the boat and my friend Giovanni – he is a very good throttleman."
Al Tayer and Carpitella's win was watched from the pits by Bin Hendi and Al Zafeen whose eight-race winning streak in Fazza ended in spectacular fashion after crashing into the side of Norwegian entry Relekta, piloted by Christian Zaborowski and Paul Gaiser.
"On the second restart, we came to the first turn behind Team Abu Dhabi and went to go on the inside," said Bin Hendi. "Relekta came round on the outside, spun into our way and we couldn't avoid them.
"We hit them on the rear of the boat and just took off through the spray – we couldn't see anything. Fortunately we are all OK but the boat needs a lot of work done to get it ready to race again."
It was the second crash of the day – Norway's Jorn Tandberg and Kolbjorn Selmer barrel-rolled out of the race on the first lap, an incident that forced a restart and all but ended the scarlet cat's world championship ambitions.
After starting on pole position, it was a miserable day for Tandberg and Selmer whose race last less than a mile before Welmax ended upside down. "We were racing behind Fazza when we turned but all I saw after that was a lot of water and that was that," smiled a philosophical Tandberg.
The thousands who turned out to watch the first of two races to be staged in Uddevalla were certainly entertained, although it is unclear how many of the battered fleet will be back to contest race two today (Sunday). One boat sure to be there, however, is Skydive Dubai after El Sayed and Al Mahairbi enjoyed a podium finish in their first race together.
"It was very difficult to concentrate with all the restarts but we're happy with second place as Team Abu Dhabi were just too good today," said Al Mehairbi. "Talib and I are still learning together but we ran well and we can really push on from here in the championship."
Today (Sunday) the second race of the Swedish Grand Prix will see Team Abu Dhabi aim to close the gap on Fazza at the top of the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship after moving to third in the standings on 47 points just 35 points behind Bin Hendi and Al Zafeen who lead on 82 points from Skydive Dubai in second on 68.
