Team Abu Dhabi’s Alex Carella in action at the UIM F1 H20 Powerboat Grand Prix of Portugal in August this year.

 

Agencies/Liuzhou, China


Team Abu Dhabi’s Alex Carella and Thani al-Qamzi are currently in China preparing for Friday’s Grand Prix of China on the Liu River in Liuzhou.
The race is the fourth round of the 2015 UIM F1 H2O World Championship and the duo know that podium finishes are necessary for them to keep their title challenges alive with just three races to run in this year’s six-round calendar. The pair finished third and sixth at the last race in Portugal in August and now hold sixth and 11th places in the drivers’ points standings.
With 20 points available to the winner of the Chinese race, Carella knows that nothing short of a win, or at least a podium finish, will be sufficient if he is to close the gap on series leader Shaun Torrente and defending World Champion Philippe Chiappe. Carella is currently 17 points behind the leading American and 16 adrift of Chiappe, the winner in Portugal.
Al-Qamzi rejoined the team in Porto after missing the first two races of the season in Qatar and France and is tied with Sweden’s Jesper Forss on five points.
“I’ve got to go out there and focus purely on this race and achieving the win,” said Carella who won the Liuzhou race three years running while driving for the former Qatar Team. “There are only three races left and time is running out. I need the points on the board. I love this circuit. It’s just something about the surroundings that make this such a great place for me. My only mishap came in 2011, when I qualified second, was forced to start at the end of the dock because of engine problems and still finished fifth. I can’t afford any more hiccups or my dreams of another title will go straight out of the window.”
Team Abu Dhabi will also run two boats on the third and fourth races in this year’s UIM F-4S Championship. Rashed al-Qemzi showed an impressive turn of speed in the qualifying sessions in Portugal and holds equal fourth position in the championship behind Mike Szymura, Joakim Halvorsen and Bingchen Wu. He drives the first of the two Abu Dhabi boats and will be joined by Mohammed al-Mehairbi in Luizhou, the southern Chinese city which first hosted a round of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship in 2008.