Just one point now separates the teams at the top of the UIM XCAT World Series Standings after an exhilarating third round at the Cascais GP on Sunday.
Having won the opening round of the Series in February, the Abu Dhabi Team (Rashed Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansoori) came into the race as Series leaders. But a bad start and then later engine trouble saw them slip out of contention, eventually finishing in fifth spot while last year’s winners, XDubai, produced a flawless performance to take the win.
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The XDubai pair of Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi proved untouchable as they led from the start, mastering the tricky conditions that saw the race committee changing the course just an hour before, and crossed the line first.
T-Bone Station (Giovanni Carpitella and Marco Pennesi) continued their bad run of luck so far this season. The Italian duo were in second spot for much of the race but a sudden loss of their power steering meant they had to abandon their chase as it was unsafe to continue.
XDubai take victory in the Cascais #GrandPrix. 2. Yacht 3. Hoorsenbuhs pic.twitter.com/mE4N0r8KPA
— XCATracing (@XCATracing) June 14, 2015
Behind them the Yachts duo of Francois Pinelli and Saul Bubacco were engaged in a fierce battle with the Abu Dhabi Team for third spot. It was one they eventually won, with Abu Dhabi pushing just that little bit too hard and eventually succumbing to engine trouble, so slipping down the placings.
The Hoorsenbuhs team of Tomaso Polli and Matteo Nicolini made the most of the gap and pounced on third spot – their second podium finish of the season. With that, the Italian team have moved into third place overall in the Series.
XDubai’s Bin Hendi explained after the race, that taking top spot in the overall standings was their main priority. “We were looking forward to that. We were calculating a lot this afternoon and we said we wish we could become number one,” he explained.
