Qatar Team’s Torrente opens up world title race

By Sports Reporter/Doha

The pair was the class of the entire field and looked set for a spectacular 1-2 finish until the fourth round of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship ended in dramatic circumstances three laps from the end.

Torrente collided with American Terry Rinker and the latter’s spectacular crash forced a yellow flag situation, during which Carella ground to a halt with mechanical issues. The race finished under the yellow with Torrente leading from Sweden’s Jonas Andersson and Frenchman Phillipe Chiappe.

Torrente was duly handed the victory in the provisional results and at the podium - pending any potential appeal from a rival team - and he will have to wait a little longer to celebrate his first ever official F1 win. If the results are declared final, the American will take a four-point championship lead over Chiappe to Abu Dhabi next weekend, with Carella a further four points adrift in third.

Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah al-Kuwari and Mohamed al-Obaidly qualified fifth and ninth for the second of the 19-lap F-4S races for the Eurofin Trophy. The race was dominated by series leader Mike Sztmura of Germany, who extended his championship lead to 45 points after a sensational start-to-finish win.

Al-Kuwari shadowed China’s Bincgeng Wu to the finish and confirmed third place, while al-Obaidly was seventh. Al-Kuwari now holds fourth in the points’ standings with four races remaining.

“This was a classic racing accident and it can happen in any form of marine sports,” said Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani, president of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), on the subject of the Torrente collision. “It was a very exciting end to a race that both our Qatar drivers controlled from the start. The outcome also means we have a very exciting finish to the season in prospect in the UAE now at the last two races in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.”

Qatar Grand Prix – provisional results

1. Shaun Torrente (Qatar Team)                      38 laps

2. Jonas Andersson (Team Azerbaijan)      L1

3. Phillipe Chiappe (CTIC China Team)       L1

4. Yousef al-Rubayan (F1 Atlantic)                  L1

5. Duarte Benavente (F1 Atlantic)                   L1

6. Marit Stromoy (Team Nautica)                   L1

7. Filip Roms (Mad-Croc Baba Racing)        L2

8. Alex Carella (Qatar Team)     RET

9. Rinaldo Osculati (Team Nautica)              L5

10. Terry Rinker (Team Azerbaijan)              RET

UIM F1 H20 Championship standings

1. Shaun Torrente (Qatar Team)                      55 pts

2. Phillipe Chiappe (CTIC China)                      51 pts

3. Alex Carella (Qatar Team)     47 pts

4. Sami Selio (Mad-Croc Baba)  44 pts

5. J Andersson (Team Azerbaijan)                 27 pts

F-4S Eurofin Trophy standings

1. Mike Szymura (Atlantic Team/Interpass/GC)          112 pts

2. Niklas Friberg (Team Azerbaijan)             67 pts

3. Bincheng Wu (CTIC China)      65 pts

4. Khalid Abdullah al-Kuwari (Qatar Team)                    50 pts

5. Nikita Lijcs (Mad-Croc Baba)                         35 pts

5. Morgan Jernfast (Team Nautica)               35 pts

7. Mohamed al-Mehairbi (Team Abu Dhabi)                   32 pts

8. A Comparato (Team Nautica)                      20 pts

9. Eirik Danielsen (Team Nautica)                  19 pts

10. Jan Andre Landsnes (Singha)                    18 pts

11. Maicol Chiossi (Mad-Croc Baba)                16 pts

12. Rashid al-Romaithi (Team Abu Dhabi)                        8 pts

13. Mohamed al-Obaidly (Qatar Team)      6 pts

below right: Torrent celebrates with QMSF’s Khalid bin Arhama al-Kuwari.