Arif Al Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi retake the points lead
Fazza completed the perfect weekend with a second race win in as many days, ensuring a clean sweep of the weekend’s honours. Welmax’s overnight repairs were rewarded with second place and Maritimo 11 made up for Saturday’s disappointment by taking the final podium place in second race of the Romanian Grand Prix ‘
Arif Al Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi claimed their second successive race win to storm to the top of the World Championship standings. Another phenomenal start saw them power to the front of pack and they never looked troubled as they cruised to their third race win of the season.
“It has been a perfect weekend,” said Bin Hendi, “We are back on top of the world championship standings and can’t ask for more than that.”
Welmax’s Jorn Tandberg and Kolbjorn Selmer took their second race podium in successive outings to put them into fourth place in the championship standings. A good start saw them reach the first mark in third place and they were able to hold position to claim second spot after Victory 1 had problems on the penultimate lap. Tandberg said:
“We got a little bit of luck today. That is racing. We are very happy to end a good weekend with three podium finishes.”
The third podium place was taken by Maritimo 11’s Tom Barry-Cotter and Pal Virik Nilsen. After having seen a place on Saturday’s podium slip away, they grabbed the opportunity to make up with a brilliant long-lap strategy. After a poor start their decision to take both long-laps in quick succession paid dividends as they made up time and places.
“We lost a podium yesterday, so are very happy to get one today,” said Barry-Cotter, “We didn’t have a great start so took our long-laps early. We then had to focus on running our own race, not to make any mistakes and hope that someone had a problem because we knew we didn’t have the pace to catch them.”
Double world Champion, Mohammad Al Mari and Abdullah Al Mehairbi, bounced back after Saturday’s hectic and incident filled race, which saw this new partnership disqualified, to bring Victory 77 home in fourth place and post their first points of the campaign.
A spectacular weekend of racing has seen Fazza dominate from first practice to the final race and return to the top of the World Championship standings, and move 15 points clear of their team-mates Victory 1. Maritimo’s second podium in three races keeps them in third place ahead of round four of the championship in Stresa, Italy, on October 2-4.
ROMANIAN GRAND PRIX – SECOND RACE
1. Fazza – A Al Zafeen (UAE) / N Bin Hendi (UAE)
4
2. Welmax – KO Selmer (NOR) / J Tandberg (NOR)
3. Maritimo 11 – T Barry-Cotter (AUS) / PV Nilsen (NOR)
4. Victory 77 – A Al Mehairbi (UAE) / M Al Marri (UAE)
5. Giorgioffshore – K Olsen (ITA) / N Giorgi (ITA)
6. Victory 1 – M Al Mehairi (UAE) / JM Sanchez (FRA)
7. Foresti & Suardi – Roscioli Hotels – G Soave (ITA)
Maritimo 12 – G Manuzzi (SMR) / P McGrath (NZL) – DNS
CLASS 1 WORLD POWERBOAT CHAMPIONSHIP –
after round three, race four of ten
1. Fazza – 71pts 2. Victory 1 – 56pts 3. Maritimo 11 – 40pts 4. Welmax – 38pts 5. Foresti & Suardi-Roscioli Hotels – 27pts 6. Giorgioffshore – 23pts 7. Qatar 96 – 15pts 8. Maritimo 12 – 12pts 9= Victory 77 – 9pts 9= Aurantium – 9pts 11. Qatar 95 – 4pts
