Qatar's Carella and Torrente fall short of F1 H2O World Title

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Qatar's Carella and Torrente fall short of UIM World title success in Sharjah finale
19.12.2014: 2014 UIM F1 H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 15th Grand Prix of Sharjah - round 5, December 18-19

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• Frenchman Philippe Chiappe wins in Sharjah to claim world crown

• Qatar Team wins the 2014 UIM F1 H2O Teams’ Championship

• Al-Kuwari finishes fourth from F-4S pole; Rigby wins last race



Alex Carella and Shaun Torrente overcame two yellow flag situations, but fell short of claiming a fourth successive UIM F1 H2O World Championship title for the Qatar Team in Friday’s punishing 15th Grand Prix of Sharjah on Khaled Lagoon.


The duo reached the chequered flag in second and third positions, but Frenchman Philippe Chiappe led from the start to the finish of the 37-lap race to confirm a first ever World Championship title for the CTIC China Team. Qatar’s consolation was the Team, Fast Lap Trophy and Pole Position Championship titles.


“It was a disappointing day but we cannot win this title every year,” reflected Khalid bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF).


“It was a tough race. Philippe was very fast and we were not able to close him down. Shaun did well to get back from fifth to third, but it was not to be. Now we will go away for the winter break, assess everything and come back stronger and more determined to win back the title in 2015.”


Qatar’s Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari and Mohammed All-Obaidly qualified in pole position and seventh for the final F-4S Trophy race of the season, but the Qatar Team duo were not able to finish the season with a second win and Al-Kuwari shadowed Briney Rigby, Bingchen Wu and Mike Szymura to the chequered flag to take fourth position.



Grand Prix of Sharjah


The start to the main race was critical and Carella knew that he had to make a move on Chiappe after the run out to the first turn buoy and prevent the Frenchman benefiting from clear water ahead. Torrente lined up in fifth behind the leading duo, Jonas Andersson and Sami Selio for the 37-lap race.


Chiappe made a clean start and edged clear of Carella through the first lap, as Torrente passed Selio to take fourth behind Andersson. Chiappe’s lead was 3.88sec after five laps, but Carella and Torrente were not able to improve on their second and fourth places through lap seven.


Torrente began to apply the pressure on third-placed Andersson as the race progressed, but a yellow flag was raised soon afterwards when Filip Roms pulled up on the racecourse with technical issues. Racing restarted on lap 14 and Torrente managed to pass Andersson and slot in behind Chiappe and Carella.


But Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Rubayan flipped his boat on lap 15 and forced a second yellow flag situation while his stricken hull was removed from the course.


Chiappe, Carella and Torrente were bunched up and the restart was critical, but the Frenchman maintained his lead into lap 21 and began to pull away from the Qatar Team duo. His lead was 6.44sec after 25 laps and the Frenchman extended that to 8.22sec into lap 32.


Neither Carella nor Torrente had an answer over the closing laps and Chiappe passed the chequered flag to seal his second win of the season and confirm a maiden World Championship title on his 92nd career GP start in his 12th year of Grand Prix racing.


Torrente and Carella had used Friday morning’s second free practice session to get the best set-up for the race and practice their starts. Torrente did run a few hot laps and posted the third quickest lap of 46.51sec behind the Team Abu Dhabi duo of Al-Hameli and Al-Qamzi.



F-4S race 2

Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari was in superb form for the second day running and the winner of Thursday’s race was fastest in second practice and claimed pole position for the final race of the season with a best lap of 56.66sec in the time trials. That was sufficient to beat Briney Rigby by 0.11sec and claim the start advantage for the 20-minute race. Al-Obaidly qualified in seventh after Thursday’s accident.


Al-Kuwari was not able to repeat the success of the previous day and the Qatari reached the chequered flag in fourth position behind Rigby, Bincheng Wu and new champion Mike Szymura.



Grand Prix of Sharjah – race result:


1. Philippe Chiappe (FRA) China CTIC Team 37 laps
2. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team @ 6.55sec
3. Shaun Torrente (QAT) Qatar Team @ 13.41sec
4. Sami Selio (FIN) Mad-Croc Baba Racing Team @ 15.66sec
5. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Motorglass F1 Team L1
6. Jesper Forss (SWE) Team Sweden L2
7. Duarte Benavente (PRT) F1 GC Atlantic Team L2
8. Xiong Ziwei (CHN) China CTIC Team L2
8. Bartek Marszalek (POL) Motorglass F1 Team L2
10. Erik Stark (SWE) Team Nautica L10



2014 UIM F1 H2O World Championship – final positions:

1. Philippe Chiappe (FRA) China CTIC Team 70 pts
2. Alex Carella (QAT) Qatar Team 62 pts
3. Shaun Torrente (QAT) Qatar Team 56 pts
4. Sami Selio (FIN) Mad-Croc Baba Racing Team 33 pts
5. Francesco Cantando (ITA) Motorglass F1 Team 28 pts
6. Erik Stark (SWE) Team Nautica 23 pts
7. Duarte Benavente (PRT) F1 GC Atlantic Team 16 pts
7. Bartek Marszalek (POL) Motorglass F1 Team 16 pts
9. Ahmed Al-Hameli (ARE) Team Abu Dhabi 14 pts
9. Thani Al-Qamzi (ARE) Team Abu Dhabi 14 pts
11. Filip Roms (FIN) Mad-Croc Baba Racing Team 13 pts
12. Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden 9 pts
12. Marit Stromoy (NOR) Team Nautica 9 pts
14. Xiong Ziwei (CHN) China CTIC Team 8 pts
15. Jesper Forss (SWE) Team Sweden 5 pts
15. Yousef Al-Rubayan (KWT) F1 GC Atlantic Team 5 pts
17. Ivan Brigada (ITA) Caudwell Racing 4 pts
18. Tomas Cermak (SVK) Caudwell Racing 1 pt



2014 F-4S Trophy – final positions (unofficial):

1. Mike Szymura (DEU) F1 GC Atlantic Team 146 pts
2. Briney Rigby (AUS) Team Sweden 126 pts
3. Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari (QAT) Qatar Team 77 pts, etc



Neil Perkins, also photos

http://www.automobilsport.com/race-categories--24/race-categories--24,131080,Qatars-Carella-and-Torrente-fall-short-of-UIM-World-title-success-in-Sharjah-finale,news.htm

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F1H2O World Championship
Grand Prix of Sharjah - U.A.E. - 18/19 December 2014



French driver Philippe Chiappe moved a giant step forward in his dream of winning his first world title as he crushed the competition with a 44.33 second lap for a speed of 170.54 kph and will start at the front of the field for the fifth and final round of the 2014 UIM F1 H2O World Championship at the 15th Anniversary Grand Prix of Sharjah race in the United Arab Emirates.


The CTIC China Team pilot ran his new Moore boat around the 2.2 kilometer (1.4 mile) five-pin race circuit on the Khaled Lagoon in perfect trim, almost on rails, while eclipsing the 45.12 second 167.55 kph lap sent by his closest competitor for the title Alex Carella of the Qatar Team who had to settle for second.


Chiappe, who leads the championship with 50 points, three ahead of Carella, knows he needs to just stay ahead of the defending race and three-time World Champion to capture his first title in his 12th year of racing and his 92nd race start and become the first French World Champion in the tours 31 year history.


"It was a great day for us as a team and the boat felt just fantastic all day," said Philippe. "I realize I am only half way there and tomorrow is another day but, gaining pole here is so very important and I feel very calm at the moment that we can reach our dreams to becoming champion by late tomorrow afternoon."


Carella, who was disappointed not to get his second straight pole here in Sharjah, knows he's going to have to push real hard to have a shot of his fourth straight title.


"Yeah, we came close but Philippe had us covered today," said Alex. "Tomorrow is tomorrow and we are hoping to get a great start and push him for 37 laps and take advantage of what should be a very rough race circuit."


Shaun Torrente, who sits third in the championship and the last possible driver to take the title tomorrow had the bad luck of running out of fuel onboard the boat and failing to get full power out of his engine and settling with a fifth place starting position after a 47.15 second lap and 160.34 kph speed after having the fastest time in Q2 after setting a 45.75 pace.


"Yes, we made the wrong calculations on fuel as we were trying to lighten the boat as much as possible and now we are back a ways. We will have to fight very hard to get to the front as well as needing some luck at the same time to capture a title," said the Florida driver.


Meanwhile, third place went a the Swedish driver Jonas Andersson who had another great qualifying performance for 2014 with a 45.55 second lap and 165.97 kph speed. The Team Sweden driver is hoping to finish his second race of the season after failing to finish in three of the four events thus far this season.


Sami Selio of the Mad Croc Baba Team, who had his eyes set on his fifth career pole in Sharjah, was fourth with a 46.56 second lap. Sami is hoping to improve on his fourth place standing in the championship table tomorrow and earn his second podium of the season.


Local driver Ahmed Al Hameli of Team Abu Dhabi struggled with a mechanical problem despite running a respectable 47.53 second lap for a 159.06 kph. This two time winner of this event will be hoping to be on his second straight podium of the year.


Rookie Erik Stark of Sweden and Team Nautica settled for seventh position after being bumped from a possible top-6 "shootout" appearance in the final thirty seconds in Q2 when he went from fifth to seventh for the reigning world F2 champion in a blink of an eye.


Three time winner of the event Thani Al Qamzi settled for eighth despite problems in his Team Abu Dhabi boat.


Ninth went to the first winner of this event 15 years ago, Francesco Cantando of Italy, with 46.89 second lap in his Motorglass F1 Blaze hull.


Youssef Al-Rubayan of Kuwait rounded out the top ten with speed of 156.65 kph in his F1 GC Atlantic Team Baba boat.


So, the story line is the same, three drivers have a shot at the 2014 championship of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship for power boating with Philippe Chiappe of France with his foot halfway thru the door in his CTIC China machine after his pole winning performance on Thursday.


However, the story hasn't been totally written or decided because the three-time World Champion Alex Carella is sitting right next to him ready to keep his streak alive, while his teammate, Shaun Torrente, still has a pulse starting back in fifth and not out of the picture yet.


The drama couldn't get any better than this as for the sixth time in nine years the championship comes down to the final day and final Grand Prix.


You can follow all the action of this 15th Anniversary Grand Prix of Sharjah Grand Prix by going to the tours official website at www.f1h2o.com with both the worldwide broadcast feed available as well as live scoring of this 37 lap "final chapter" in what has turned out to be an truly wonderful and dramatic season.

F1H2O - Idea Marketing - also photo

http://www.automobilsport.com/race-categories--24,131078,Chiappe-On-Pole-With-Dominating-Performance-at-F1H2O-Sharjah-GP,news.htm

[Serious News]

Philippe Chiappe wins first F1 powerboats world title

Dubai: Frenchman Philippe Chiappe said winning the UIM F1 World Powerboat Championship for the first time was a dream-come-true after he led from start to finish at the Sharjah Grand Prix at the Khalid Lagoon on Friday.

Watched by a big crowd, Chiappe was handed his crown by Shaikh Sultan Bin Ahmad Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA), in the presence of Saeed Hareb, General Secretary of Dubai Sports Council, and Raffaele Chiulli, President of UIM, the world governing body for watersports.

Going into the fifth and final round of the series, Chiappe held a narrow three-point lead over Qatar Team’s three-time defending champion Alex Carella, with the latter’s teammate Shaun Torrente also in contention.

But with the bulk of his work done when claiming pole position on Thursday, Chiappe drove a measured race, overcoming two yellow-flag incidents to keep Carella in second followed by Torrente in a race that saw only nine of the 15 boats finish.

Chiappe’s win meant he became the first world champion from France in the 31-year history of F1 powerboat racing.

“This is so much of a dream,” the 51-year-old told Gulf News. “For the past four years we have been doing everything right. We have just tried to get better as a team each year.

“Once it was a problem with the engine, once it was the boat, once it was an error from me, but we were always there among the top. But this year we got everything right and this makes us so proud to have everything come together.

“Everything worked in our favour and I have achieved a huge goal in my career as a driver.

“This was the 15th time Sharjah has organised this race and I am glad to be a part of powerboat history.”

Carella had no answer to the Frenchman’s speed from the start.

“He was just too good. I tried everything and he had so much more speed. There was nothing I could do. He was on another planet today,” Carella said.

Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Director-General of SCTDA, UIM F1 promoter Nicolo di San Germano and Mohammad Ali Al Noman, Deputy Chairman of SCTDA, were also present at the prizegiving ceremony.

http://gulfnews.com/sport/philippe-chiappe-wins-first-f1-powerboats-world-title-1.1429350

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http://youtu.be/NJPK38kFlNI