The Italian qualified in fourth position for the first of two Chinese rounds of the series, as pole position fell to Baba Racing’s flying Finn Sami Selio on the four-pin Hulan Estuary Wetland Park course.
Ahmed Al Hameli, of the Emirates Racing Team, looked to have claimed his fourth career pole position with a last gasp lap of 36.25 seconds, but the lap was later erased from the records following a course violation, and Selio’s earlier time of 36.60 seconds was sufficient for the double world champion to pip his Finnish team mate Filip Roms to pole by just 4/100ths of a second.
Carella’s fourth place enabled the Team Abu Dhabi driver to extend his advantage in the UIM F1 H2O Pole Position series to 15 points.
“It’s getting to a crucial time in the season with three races to go after this one and it was important that Alex qualified in the leading group for Sunday’s race,” said Salem Al Romaithi, assistant general manager of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club.
“His closest rivals will start behind him on the pontoon on Sunday and that gives him a great chance to make a clean start and steal a march on them.”
Thani Al Qamzi missed out on the final six-boat shootout for pole position and the second Team Abu Dhabi driver will start Sunday in 11th.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Qamzi and Mohammed Al Mehairbi finished the UIM F4-S race in third and fourth positions respectively after F1 Atlantic Team’s Jeremy Brisset led from start-to-finish to claim his first victory in the series. With the third-place finish, Al Qamzi extended his series lead to 17 points.
