Friday, December 4th, 2009

QATAR TEAM’S PRICE SEALS SECOND PLACE IN THRILLING F1 GRAND PRIX OF ABU DHABI

·      Italy’s Guido Cappellini seals third successive win and leads championship

·      Qatar Team duo qualify fourth and 17^th for crucial Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI (UAE): The Qatar’s Team’s Jay Price faces an uphill battle to retain his UIM F1 World Championship crown over the next seven days, despite finishing an excellent second overall behind Guido Cappellini in the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi on Friday afternoon.

The pair were involved in a thrilling duel for supremacy over the demanding 36-lap race, but Cappellini managed to hang on by the slimmest of margins to record his 62^nd career victory in his quest for a 10^th world title. Price now trails the Italian by 34 points.

The Qatar Team driver had trailed championship leader Thani Al-Qamzi by 42 points heading into the weekend’s double-header and knows that he can now score a possible 60 points in the next three races –Saturday’s 14^th round of the series at the Breakwater in Abu Dhabi and the final two rounds of the season in Sharjah next weekend. Price’s consolation was extending his lead in the Fast Lap Slam Trophy to six points.

“It was one fantastic and exciting race today,” enthused His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, President of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF). “Sami had the lead early on and then it was a big fight between Guido and Jay. I was impressed with the way that Brendan (Power) and the team had set up Jay’s boat today. He gave a terrific showing and the podium was crucial. He managed to stay in the hunt for the title and will need to do the same again tomorrow. Another podium is important.”

Malcolm Goodman qualified in 17^th position for his third Grand Prix with the Qatar Team and Andy Elliott’s Dragon boat. The Briton had climbed as high as 13^th through the opening three laps before being forced out with mechanical problems.

The race

Price started the Abu Dhabi race weekend with a one-point lead in the Fast Lap Slam trophy and a nine-point lead in the UIM F1 Pole Position Championship, but his main focus was on closing the gap in the overall points’ standings for the world title. The defending World Champion started Friday’s race from third position after Ahmed Al-Hameli was forced to start from the rear of the grid on the 2.175km course after changing an engine before the race.

Selio made a good start and managed to pull away from Cappellini and Price through lap one, as Cantando applied the pressure on Price for third place. Goodman climbed to 13^th after lap three, but was forced out of the running on the fourth lap.

Selio held an 8.34s lead over Cappellini through lap six, as Price, Cantando and former championship leader Jonas Andersson completed the top five after 10 minutes of racing. By 13 laps, the Finn’s lead was 11 seconds, but he hit trouble on the 14^th lap and Cappellini sped into the lead, with Price benefiting to snatch second position. The Qatar Team driver reduced Cappellini’s outright lead to 3.58s through 16 laps and it was a mere 2.82s after 17 tours and 2.53s after lap 19.

The fight to the chequered flag was truly on after lap 23 and Price was a mere 1.22s behind Cappellini, who was chasing his fifth race win in Abu Dhabi. The World Champion reduced the margin to 0.93s after 31 laps in what was becoming a thrilling tussle for victory, but Cappellini managed to hang on and seal his third successive victory and take the outright lead in the UIM F1 Drivers’ Championship.

Timed trials and free practice

Selio set the early target time of 48.08s in the qualifying session, with Cappellini 0.48s adrift in second position after his opening three laps and Price down in 10th with a warm-up time of 55.06s. After 15 minutes of the session, Price managed to displace Al-Qamzi and slot into fourth position with a lap of 48.82s, although Goodman was the only one of the 18 entrants not to record a time heading into the half-way point.

Goodman’s first lap of 54.97s was sufficient for him to overtake Tomas Cermak in the rankings and he overtook Rinaldo Osulati after his next two tours with a 54.05s circuit, before slipping back to 17^th.

Selio’s early time remained the target as the timed trials entered the last 15 minutes. Price needed to move up the rankings to prevent Selio snatching a slender lead in the UIM F1 Pole Position Championship.

Al-Hameli managed to pass Cappellini in the last quarter of an hour to take second position and Price tried hard to catch the Italian, the Qatar Team driver posting a 48.61s tour in the last six minutes, as Selio put the contest out of Al-Hameli’s reach with a scorching run of 47.64s. Selio’s Pole Position success meant that he snatched the lead in the UIM F1 Pole Position Championship from Price by two points.

Price set the second fastest lap of 48.10s in the free practice session, the World Champion finishing the stint a mere 0.18s behind Ahmed Al-Hameli and 0.24s in front of Selio. Malcolm Goodman ran for eight laps and was content to record the 14^th fastest lap of 54.02s.

Tomorrow (Saturday), teams will be permitted a free practice session before the timed trials and the second Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, which will run for a minimum of 30 minutes and two green laps from 14.30hrs (Doha time).

2009 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi  – race 1 results (Friday)

2009 UIM F1 World Championship – positions after 13 of 16 races:

2009 UIM F1 Pole Position Championship – positions after 13 of 16 rounds:

Ends