DOHA - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - In an unusual early morning qualifying session, defending race winning champion Shaun Torrente of the Doha Team rocket his way to pole position for this afternoon's 11th Grand Prix of Qatar in front of thousands of fans along the corniche on Doha Bay.
The American driver from Florida running his brand new DAC hull that he had tested the last few days proved once again he is one to be feared when it comes to this circuit here along the downtown waterfront on the 1.76 kilometer five-turn circuit out performing 15 other drivers from 10 different nations in the process.
"I am really happy with our result," stated Shaun. "We have worked really hard not only in Florida lately but here in Qatar preparing our set-up with this new boat and feel that if everything goes our way this afternoon we have a shot of winning here for the second time in a row for the Qatar Team."
Actually for the team, the Qatar organization has won three straight with Shaun winning twice and now new driver for Team Abu Dhabi in Italian Alex Carella a year ago when he was Shaun's teammate. Carella, disappointed with his race package is starting tenth off the dock this afternoon for Team Manager Guido Cappellini.
Shaun, in the top six "shoot-out" qualifying session set a blistering time of a 42.75 for a speed of 176.84 kph which was .55 of a second quicker than defending World Champion Philippe Chiappe of France in the CTIC China Team Moore hull who did a 43.40 second lap.
Third on the grid was Ahmed Al Hameli of Scott Gillman's new Emirates Team with a 44.25 second lap and 170.85 kph in a shorter F2 designed Baba hull.
Fourth quickest was Kuwaiti driver Youssef Al Rubayan in the F1 GC Atlantic Team boat with a 44.61 second lap and 169.47 kph.
Fifth was two-time World Champion Sami Selio of Finland in the Mad Croc Baba Racing boat with a 45.29 second lap just ahead of second year driver Erik Stark of Sweden in the Team Nautica DAC hull with a 47.35 second lap.
Sixteen drivers from 11 different nations will take to the rough waters of Doha Bay for a 15:45 Local, 12:45 GMT start this afternoon. The event can be watched live by going to the official website of the F1 H2O tour by www.f1h2o.com where the international television feed will cover the event.
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