Qatar’s Carella 2nd fastest in Liuzhou qualifying

The Qatar Team’s Alex Carella and Jay Price qualified in second and fifth places for today’s Grand Prix of China on the Liu River in Liuzhou. Pole Position for the race fell to Team Abu Dhabi’s Ahmed al-Hameli, but Carella’s flying lap of 47.29s late in the final qualifying session catapulted him into second position and was also sufficient for the youngster to overhaul his Qatar team-mate and take a four-point lead in the 2011 UIM F1 H20 Pole Position Championship.Torrential rain and low cloud had marred preparations for qualifying on the Liu River, but Khalid bin Arhama al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the (QMSF), which runs under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani, was relatively content with the result nonetheless.“Second and fifth is okay for us and our strategy,” said al-Kuwari. “Yes, we would have liked to take pole position, but we have to think about our equipment and the championship as a whole. Jay and Alex are well clear of their rivals and we need to take no risks in the strategy. The water was a little rough in the morning and the conditions were far from ideal. Now, I suppose, the goal is a podium finish for both our drivers to keep the momentum going.”Qatar’s Khalid Saleh al-Shamlan qualified second and finished the first of the weekend’s 20-minute F-4S races in a similar position to maintain his championship challenge. The Qatari shadowed race winner and new series leader Angelica ‘Bimba’ Sjoholm to the chequered flag, with former championship front-runner Matthew Palfreyman down in third place.Price and Carella slotted into fourth and sixth places after the first six minutes of the opening qualifying session, with Team Abu Dhabi’s Ahmed al-Hameli, Finland’s Sami Selio and Thani al-Qamzi leading the way.Team Nautica’s Bartek Marszalek, Australia’s Rhys Coles and Rinaldo Osculati were eliminated from the first session and 15 of the 18 drivers progressed to the second qualifying stint, with Carella and Price moving on from fourth and fifth positions. Price and Carella were in solid form through the early stages of Q2 and held second and sixth with seven minutes remaining. It was crucial that the duo stayed inside the top 10 to be guaranteed a place in the final 10-boat shoot-out and they eventually finished the session in third and second places respectively. Valerio Lagiannella, Tommy Vahlsten, Duarte Benavente,Marit Stromoy and Phillipe Tourre failed to qualify. Price stormed into the lead in Q3 with a stunning lap of 48.23s, but he was quickly overhauled by al-Hameli’s run of 47.81s, as Carella slotted into seventh with a tour of 49.64s. Al-Hameli edged further clear with a staggering time of 47.15s and Price slipped to fourth behind Phillipe Chiappe and Thani al-Qamzi. Carella was languishing in ninth with a best lap of 49.17s, but leapt up to fifth with a lap of 48.19s. Finland’s Sami Selio then passed Carella and gained fifth. But the Qatar Team driver produced a stunning reply with three minutes remaining and a lap of 47.29s pushed him up to second place and demoted Price to fifth. The lap also moved him ahead of his team-mate and into a four-point lead in the UIM F1 H20 Pole Position Championship.