The Khaled Lagoon became the place where in the 32 year history of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship, a woman, Marit Stromoy of Norway, came home number one defeating 17 men from 10 different nations winning her first Grand Prix race at the 16th Annual Grand Prix of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
The historic race marked her first podium, as she held off three-time World Champion Alex Carella of Italy and American Shaun Torrente of the Victory Team, to take her first 20 points and the top step of the podium in her eight year F1 H2O career.
"It was a great day for me and everyone especially on my EMIC Team since we worked so hard during the season to get the boat, engine and set-up just right and it finally came together today," said the 39 year-old from Kristiansand.
"We knew we could have a shot at the lead if we could get around the first corner quickly and cleanly and we did just that moving from fourth to second on the first lap.
I felt this made all the difference.
I could feel the heat behind me with Carella breathing down my neck for the final twenty laps. However, we were able to pull away a few more seconds in the final laps to secure the win.
What a great feeling. This is what makes all the hard work and patience pay off with a race team and I have a great group of people who believe in me as well and that makes all the difference.
It's time to go celebrate and we will tonight. A great way to end the season that's for sure."
Finishing 4.7 seconds back in second was the runner-up in the championship Carella as the Team Abu Dhabi driver earned the "runner-up" trophy taking second in the championship standings for the second straight year.
"It was a tough grind today," said Alex. "We made an last minute engine adjustment and it seemed to make a difference but I couldn't get closer than 1.2 seconds to Marit, hats off to her, she deserved the day for sure."
Finishing third on the day and also in the championship was American Shaun Torrente as he was caught up in a massive dual for the last spot on the podium with pole-sitting driver Erik Stark of the Emirates Team. Separated by just 1.5 seconds most of the day Torrente got the upper hand on the very last and 43rd lap passing the driver from Stockholm thru the right hand turn and beating him by just under four seconds at the end.
"It was a battle out there today," said Shaun. "We had to concentrate 100% every moment with Erik not giving me much hope until the end. It's great to get on the podium to wrap up the season and a great way to spring forward for 2016 for the Victory Team for next season."
Finishing fifth was two-time World Champion Sami Selio of the Mad Croc Baba Team staying right in step with the battling duo in front of him finishing 18.4 seconds back at the end of the day for the driver from Helsinki.
Swedish driver Jonas Andersson from Team Sweden was a distant 50.21 seconds in a rears charging up ten positions at the start to take sixth eventually.
A less than 100 percent feeling Ahmed Al Hameli was seventh for the Emirates Team a lap behind Stromoy while young Swede Jasper Forss was eighth two laps back in the Team Sweden boat along with rookie driver Nadir Bin Hendi for the Victory Team finishing ninth.
Rounding out the top ten and picking up the last single point was French rookie Christophe Larigot also part of the winning EMIC Team.
The other big story of the race, came when second place starter and last years winner and now 2015 World Champion Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC China Team, raced off into the lead and held the point for the first third of the race. Looking for his third victory of the season, the Frenchman couldn't hold it as his engine started to misfire and he pulled into the pits. He came back out for a few more laps only to leave finishing unofficially 15th on the day to end his championship season with his second failure to go the distance.
So, on a very historic day, where for the first time in international racing history, a woman, has defeated 17 other competitors, all men.
Marit, has won the first Grand Prix event in the UIM F1 H2O World Championship history as a woman and she turns a page in the record books forever.
Congratulations to Norway's Marit Stromoy for winning the Grand Prix of Sharjah ending the 2015 on a special note.
The kickoff off the 33rd chapter of the series will be announced shortly and you can keep up with all the news of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship for powerboating by going to their official website at www.f1h2o.com.
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