The Victory Team will be looking to wrap up their eighth World
Championship in the Mina Seyahi Grand Prix in Dubai, the penultimate
race of the season on Saturday, 6 December, by bringing both their boats
home ahead of their Qatari rivals, who still pose a mathematical but
improbable outside threat to their title. Four wins this season for
Victory 1 and five podium finishes for Victory 7 have put the Dubai
boats respectively 33 and 18 points clear of Qatar 95 and in an almost
unassailable position, with the luxury of an in-house fight for the
title. Victory 1 is the clear favourite; they lead the World, Middle
East and Edox Pole Position Championships comfortably and another win
will all but guarantee Al Marri his second World title and Nadir Bin
Hendi his first. But the Dubai crew has already seen one title slip
through their fingers this year from what seemed an unassailable
position. And if Victory 7’s rookie driver Abdullah Al Mehairbi and
defending World Champion, Jean-Marc Sanchez, take the win and their
team-mates falter or finish outside the top three, the title race will
go to the wire and be decided in the Emirates and Dubai Duty Free Grand
Prix on Saturday, 13 December. The Qatar Team has one last throw of the
dice to try to turn around a season that promised so much but so far has
failed to deliver the success that was expected. Their flickering title
hopes rest with both Victory outfits breaking and posting only a
handful of points, so realistically, they will be fighting each other
for third place in the overall Championship standings, with both the
Qatar 95 and Qatar 96 crews looking for their first wins of the season.
Jotun will be hoping for a return to winning ways in Dubai, with the
2008 European Champions aiming to finish the season as the top European
outfit in the overall standings and in the Edox Pole Position
Championship. The target for Foresti & Suardi’s Italian-Norwegian
pairing, who currently head the middle order, is to continue their
season-long run of reliability, complete the season without any
technical hitches and to finish as the highest-placed European team in
the Middle East Championship. But to do so, first they must fend of the
challenge from Negotiator following the Anglo-American pairing's
impressive third place in their first outing together in the Egyptian
Grand Prix in Porto Marina in October, currently tied with them in
fourth place. SeveneleveN will be looking to complete their season of
development as they started, by taking their third top-six finish of the
year. Domenico Cirilli returns to competitive duties after missing the
last race to partner Sergio Carrasco for his first outing in Spirit of
Spain, with Giovanni Carpitella switching cockpits to partner Class 1
rookie, Abdelkader Ahmed in Roscioli Hotels Roma. And the 2007/8
Australian Offshore Superboat Champions, Tom Barry-Cotter and Pal Virik
Nilsen, make their second appearance of the year in Class 1 and will
showcase the newest Class 1 ‘spec’ raceboat, designed and built by
Australia’s premiere manufacturer of long-range luxury motoryachts,
Maritimo. Eleven boats will line up for the 21-lap, 97.21Nm Mina Seyahi
Grand Prix; first official practice takes place on Thursday, 4 December
(12.00-14.00) followed by a second session on Friday morning
(10.00-11.30) and the Edox Pole Position at 14.30. Final practice is on
Saturday morning (10.00-11.00) with the Mina Seyahi Grand Prix starting
at 14.30. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - after round 6 of 8
1. Victory 1 – 105pts
2. Victory 7 – 90pts
3. Qatar 95 – 72pts
4. Qatar 96 – 71pts
5. Jotun 90 – 64pts
6. Foresti & Suardi 8 – 50pts
7. Spirit of Spain 88 – 19pts
8. Negotiator 50 – 16pts
9. SeveneleveN 18 – 14pts
10. Qatar 9 – 4pts
11. Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 – 0pts
(Championship points include bonus points allocated to teams for running engines for two consecutive races - one point, per engine, per race)
MIDDLE EAST CHAMPIONSHIP - after round 2 of 4
1. Victory 1 – 40pts
2. Victory 7 – 27pts
3. Qatar 96 – 22pts
4= Foresti & Suardi 8 – 16pts
4= Negotiator 50 – 16pts
6. Qatar 95 – 14pts
7. SeveneleveN 18 – 5pts
8= Jotun 90 – 0pts
8= Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 – 0pts
8= Spirit of Spain 88 – 0pts
EDOX POLE POSITION CHAMPIONSHIP – after round 6 of 8
1. Victory 1 – 90pts
2. Qatar 96 – 79pts
3. Jotun 90 – 63pts
4. Qatar 95 – 44pts
5. Victory 7 – 37pts
6. Foresti & Suardi 8 – 21pts
7. SeveneleveN 18 – 18pts
8. Negotiator 50 – 12pts
9= Qatar 9 – 5pts
9= Spirit of Spain 88 – 5pts
11. Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 – 2pts
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder