Victory Team leads one-two finish for UAE in Zhengzhou

Sport360 staff 07:45 15/10/2017
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  • Team Abu Dhabi 5’s Rashed Al-Tayer and Majed Al-Mansoori shadowed Victory 3’s Salem Al-Adidi and Eisa Al-Ali to the finish of the opening race of the UIM XCAT World Championship on Zhengzhou’s Longhu Lake Saturday.

    The two Emirati crews had dominated the pole position qualifying sessions as well, but the Victory 3 benefited from their pole position to finish the 14-lap race 23.4 seconds in front of the crew running out of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC).

    The Italian duo of Diego Testa and Daniele Martignoni were the surprise package of the first of six XCAT races in the People’s Republic in the space of three weeks. They guided Caccia Engineering 22 to the final slot on the podium and finished more than 16 seconds in front of the Blue Roo, crewed by Aussie Brett Luhrmann and Norway’s Pal-Virik Nilsen. The Swedish pairing of Mikael Bengtsson and Erik Stark rounded off the top five in Swecat Racing.

    Race one marked an inauspicious start to the new XCAT season for four-time champion Arif Saif Al-Zafeen and his new British team-mate Scott Williams in Al-Wasl 7. The pair were sidelined after two laps of the race.

    Race qualifying was split into three sessions. All 11 boats took to the water for Q1, but the Fujairah Team was disqualified under the new regulations for fielding a boat that was under the weight restriction of 2,400kg.

    Team Abu Dhabi 5 ran for seven laps and carded the best time of the session – a last tour of 2min 12.357sec to storm through to Q2. Lady Spain was a mere half a second behind and Victory 3 was third.

    The Fujairah Team was again omitted from the six-boat Q2 results sheet in a session where Team Abu Dhabi 5 came out on top again with a solitary lap of 2min 11.353sec from Victory 3, the Blue Roo and 222 Offshore.

    The fastest three made it through to Q3 and Victory 3 stole a march on Team Abu Dhabi 5 and the Blue Roo to claim pole position with a winning lap of 2min 10.266sec. Al-Tayer and Al-Mansoori were second with 2min 12.129sec.

    The second Zhengzhou Grand Prix starts at 14:30 Sunday (10:30 UAE time).

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