SINGAPORE - September 18, 2005 - When the Singapore F1 GP champagne has gone flat and the winners celebrations have become subdued, eight drivers, who took part in Sunday’s GP will be taking to the waters of Marina Bay on Monday afternoon for an 18 heat series of Match Races.
After practice on Monday morning starting at 10.00am which gives teams the opportunity to set-up their boats for this unique style of sprint racing, the first heat starts at 2.00pm.
The eight man line-up features France’s Philippe Dessertenne and Philippe Chiappe, Australian brothers Bob and David Trask, Fabio Comparato from Italy, Norwegian Rolfe Sunde, Britain’s Andy Elliott and Al Zafeen Arif representing Dubai.
The format is simple. Two boats line-up in each heat and sprint around a simple three pin circuit plus a further turn mark. The driver starting on the inside drives round the shorter circuit for a lap while the other driver completes a longer lap the procedure is reversed for their second lap resulting in both covering the same distance.
After each driver has raced against each other, the drivers that started on the inside, then start on the outside giving everyone the chance to benefit from the favoured start gate.
After eight heats everyone will have driven twice and the winners go through to the next stage and the four fastest losers have a second chance with two loser heats.
Around 3.10pm, the semi-finals take place and at 3.30pm the fastest two driver’s line-up for the Grand Final after eighteen action packed heats.