SHARJAH, UAE – Thursday, December 9, 2010 – Italian Alex Carella earned his second pole position of the season with a 149.02 kph with a 50.73 second lap and will lead the field of 19 drivers for tomorrow's final event on the 2010 UIM F1 H2O World Championship for power boating at the 12th Grand Prix of Sharjah.
The 24 year-old driver outdistanced both Team Abu Dhabi driver Ahmad Al Hameli by .11 of second and his teammate Sami Selio of the Mad Croc Team who is still very much in a fight for the overall title by .16 of a second around the six turn 2.235 kilometer circuit along the corniche just at the edge of the offshore Gulf.
“We are really excited that we were able to get in the lap we did early,” said Alex. “Now we are determined to continue our fight in the championship and hopefully finish in the top three and at the same time my teammate Sami to win the title at the same time tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Ahmad will be the meat in the Mad Croc sandwich tomorrow looking for his second win of the season and his first ever in his home country. “We feel we had the perfect setup today and look tomorrow for some reliability to push Alex for the victory and at the same time hold off Sami,” said Carella. “It will be a real exciting day however it turns out when the sun sets tomorrow.”
Sami Selio was shaking his head knowing he was less than two ten's of a second off pole position but was still feeling secure about his third place qualifying position two spots ahead of his arch rival Jay Price of the Qatar Team who was quickest all day until the final session.
“We are going to push as hard as we can tomorrow and the start will be critical,” said Sami. “I can't relax for one moment and with Jay pushing from behind, well, it's going to be a pressure packed afternoon.”
Italian Ivan Brigada driving for the first time in two years on the circuit in the Skydive Dubai hull made it four BABA boats in a row in the top of the order after doing a 51.14 second lap. Behind in fifth had to be the most disappointed driver in the field with Jay Price who leads the championship by an 83-79 margin was frustrated in the final Q3 ten minute session to find a clear lap and could do no better than a 51.15 and will line up fifth in his DAC boat.
Swedish driver Jonas Andersson had one of his best qualifying efforts of the season in his Team Azerbaijan boat running a 51.73 second lap, with French pilot Philippe Chiappe taking seventh in the first of two CTIC China Team boats doing a 51.76 while teammate Pierre Lundin in eighth with a 52.98 second effort.
Team Abu Dhabi driver Thani Al Qamzi a two time winner in Sharjah was eighth in his new BABA hull with a 52.35 time and Norwegian driver Marit Stromoy was 10th when she ran a spirited 53.52 second lap to round out the top ten qualifiers.
The drama will be at a very hi level tomorrow as the top three drivers all qualified within .16 of second of each other, with Sami Selio third and Jay Price back in fifth and needing to move up and not loose his championship lead at days end. The winner who receives 20 points, second 15, third 12, fourth 9 and fifth 7 makes Price's run a “no hole bars” run to the front. Last year he crashed going into turn one for the lead, let's see how it plays out tomorrow and who will be crowned the new World titlest fourth 2010 UIM F1 H2O World Championship in Sharjah. The eighth and final round will begin at 16:00 local, 12:00 GMT and 07:00 EST on the East Coast of North America.
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