DOHA, Qatar - March 9, 2012 - The first race action of the 2012 UIM Formula season looked very familar as the same two boats that dominated in 2011 are at the top again.

Team Atlantic's Matt Palfreyman in his second generation Molgaard led the way throughout the 24 laps but Jasper Forss in Team Sweden's heavier first generation Molgaard (raced last year by Bimba Sjoholm) got within striking distance twice during the race but lacked the top speed to seriously trouble the leader.

Team Nautica's Tobias Munthe-Kaas drove a consistant race to finish 3rd ahead of Team China's Ziwei Xiong and 5th place Kornel Vo in the Mad Croc boat. However the real excitment was was played out among the two Arabic boats of Abu Dhabi and Qatar with Team Singha's Valts Silis also in the mix.

New boy Mohamed Al Maharbi in the Abu Dhabi cat was last in the early stages but battled through to fill 6th place while Silis managed to relegate Khalid Al Kuwari, Qatar's new F4 pilot into last of the eight finishers.