Championship
leaders, Victory 1, took a giant step towards retaining the team’s
World title after leading home a dream one-two finish in today’s
Egyptian Grand Prix after seeing all three of their main title rivals
falter, with Negotiator capping an impressive return to top-flight
racing, finishing third.
For Victory 1,
today’s win, the team’s fourth of the season, moves them 15 points clear
of team-mates Victory 7, and puts Al Marri within sight of his second
world crown and Bin Hendi his first, but more importantly puts them 35
points clear of their Qatari rivals, with just two races remaining and
with only 40 points on offer.
With rough
conditions anticipated, race officials decided to run a revised course
and reduced the race distance to 70Nm, and the message from Victory
Team’s general manager, Gianfranco Venturelli, before the race to both
his crews was to bring the boats home in one piece. And, after seeing
the pole-sitters Qatar 96 lead from the flag and then open up a
comfortable lead, the Victory 1 crew looked to have settled for second
place. The bonus came on lap 13 when the leaders hit trouble and slowed.
Victory 1 swept into the lead, going on to take a comfortable win by
over two minutes.
For the Qatar team their day
went from bad to very bad. With Qater 96 limping around the course to
salvage valuable points, team-mates in Qatar 95, who were running
comfortably in third place suddenly stopped a lap later, handing second
place to Victory 7.
Negotiator held off a
race-long challenge from Foresti & Suardi to take third place, which
marked an impressive return to racing for Chris Parsonage, who has sat
out the last four races, and capped an impressive Class 1 debut for
throttleman, Billy Moore.
Foresti &
Suardi 8 maintained it's impressive record for reliability producing
their best result of the season getting an important fourth place.
Disappointment
for the Spirit of Spain 88 crew, retiring on lap12, while Class 1
newcomer Mohammed Abdelkader Ahmed, marked his debut with four points in
eighth place in Roscioli Hotels Roma 60. There was also disappointment
for SeveneleveN 18 who retired on lap five and Jotun’s 90 hopes of a
hat-trick win ended on lap three.
Class 1 now
heads to Dubai for the final two races, with Victory 1 on target to win
the World, Middle East and the Edox Pole Position Championships.
EGYPTIAN GRAND PRIX - result
1. Victory 1 - M Al Marri (UAE) / N Bin Hendi (UAE) – 00.51.03,17
2. Victory 7 - A Al Mehairbi (UAE) / JM Sanchez (France) + 02.08,29
3. Negotiator 50 - C Parsonage (England) / W Moore (USA) + 1 lap
4. Foresti & Suardi 8 - K Selmer (Norway) / G Montavoci (Italy) + 1 lap
5. Qatar 96 - H Al-Thani (Qatar) / S Curtis (England) + 4 laps
6. Qatar 95 - A Al-Sulaiti (Qatar) / M Nicolini (Italy) + 6 laps
7. Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 - M A Ahmed (Spain) / A Al Suwaidi (UAE) + 7 laps
Spirit of Spain 88 - S Carrasco (Spain) / G Carpitella (Italy) – dnf
SeveneleveN 18 - G Manuzzi (Italy) / N Giorgi (Italy) – dnf
Jotun 90 - IB Aarbakke (Norway) / J Tandberg (Norway) – dnf
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
10= Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 – 4pts
(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. Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 – 4pts
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