DOHA - 13 November, 2014 - The rich tradition of success by the Scandinavian "brotherhood" of drivers in qualifying, maybe coming to an end, as the Grand Prix of the Middle East settles along the corniche in center city Doha in Qatar for the third round of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship this weekend.
The dramatic showdown, scheduled for this Friday afternoon at 15:30 local (12:30 GMT) featuring two 20 minute elimination sessions followed by the always riveting "Top-6 Shootout" round to determine pole position, has the home-standing Qatar Team, winners of four of the last five events, looking to end any hopes of a title for many of these Nordic stars.
As the Qatar Team returns fresh from exhaustive testing in Florida in the USA following a victory in Liuzhou, China a month ago, Italian three-time World Champion Alex Carella, winner of the previous two Grand Prix's this season, leads by a wapping 25 points over the rest of the field of drivers who are looking to end his three year championship streak.
Other than talented French pilot Philippe Chiappe, who finished runner-up to Carella here back in March and who has three straight podiums in Doha when he has finished for the CTIC China Team, it has been an all Scandinavian "feeding frenzy" in qualifying which will take place around this 6-pin 2.005 kilometer race circuit.
Finnish driver Sami Selio, a two-time World Champion for the Mad Croc-Baba Team, has pair of pole positions, including earlier here this year, has also in his resume a second qualifying position along with two third place results finishing up in the top three off the start dock in six of his 12 starts here. His biggest problem is winning here along the Gulf having zero victories and three podiums in his dossier.
"Yeah, it's a bit frustrating knowing I've done so well here in qualifying but haven't translated any of these performances into victories here in Doha yet," said the Helsinki driver. "This time around we are looking to start from the first starting position and take it to the end for my first victory of the year."
"If I have any hopes of winning a third title it has to start here. Hopefully then I can carry it on towards next week when we race in Abu Dhabi, where I've had better race luck than here. It's now or never and we know this."
A pair of Swedish drivers, beginning with veteran Jonas Andersson, a winner here from pole position in 2008, also qualified on pole here back in March for the Grand Prix of Qatar. The native of Fruivi, now has a pair of first place starting spots, along with two other third place qualifying starts in his 10 races here on the Gulf.
"We really have a lot of confidence in our set-up here in Doha," said Jonas. "We got it right in March and we have no reason to think we can't do it again."
For fellow countryman Erik Stark, who will be starting in only his fifth Grand Prix event in F1, he brings with him a lot of confidence following his excellent result with a second place in Liuzhou, China after qualifying seventh in his first career finish in F1.
"We didn't qualify well here at the beginning of the year because of fuel problems in the boat," said the 26 year-old from Stockholm. "We feel we can carry over our success from China and build from there to hopefully reach Q3 and the "Top-6 Shootout" on Friday."
Known as the "Dominator" when he raced in the F2 series, Erik isn't the only driver from the European version of the "Great White North" to have hopes of pole position.
Norway's Marit Stromoy, teammate to Stark on Team Nautica, qualified a fine fourth place here back in the spring and she is hoping to repeat her pole-sitting performance she displayed a few years back in Portimao, Portugal.
"We ran well back in March and feel we can even do better this time around," said Marit. "This team is really starting to jell and with that success comes confidence and we definitely have that this time around. We are really itching to prove our point on Friday."
A dark horse in all of this discussion about the Northern European influence in the "new look" F1 H2O series, is the circuits youngest driver in 20 year-old Filip Roms from Finland. He races with his mentor Sami Selio on the Mad Croc-Baba Team with two straight top-10 performances including a career best fifth in Doha at the season's first race.
The driver from Espoo, who comes from a racing family, is excited about his growing success as he starts for his 13th career Grand Prix race this Saturday afternoon.
With six drivers from this part of northern Europe coming to the Gulf this weekend, each understands that there will be little hope after Saturday afternoon if they first don't win the battle for dock position against the always formidable Qatar Team who now have won all but one event here along the corniche since 2010.
With Carella and his American team-mate Shaun Torrente of Florida, who have led the field flying one-two in race formation for the last two events here, it's going to be up to the other drivers to gain their advantage by out qualifying the home-standing duo on Friday. This will be stage one.
Can it be done? We are less than two days away from finding out with the official Qualifying session beginning on Friday the 14th at 15:30 local (12:30 GMT) and 7:30 EST on the East Coast of North America for the third race of the 2014 UIM F1 H2O World Championship and the Grand Prix of the Middle East.
The qualifying showdown can be followed "live" via the official website of the tour by going to www.f1h2o.com. Both live timing and worldwide television feed will be available to the public.
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