F1H2O
So as the 31st season was about to begin 14 drivers from 11
different nations were on hand for the 11th year in Doha to take
up the challenge of the Grand Prix of Qatar and chasing a world
title.
The “home team” fromQatar was bringing back their same driver
line up they have employed for the last two seasons and ready
to introduce the latest DAC Racing hull from the shops of ten-
time World Champion Guido Cappellini of Como, Italy.
However, the plans were put on hold, when a very unfortunate
accident developed in private testing a few days before the
race weekend. A fuel leak mixed with a spark from the engine
exploded and damaged the boats sponsons badly enough so
it couldn’t be raced and would have to be immediately shipped
back to Italy for major repairs with no harm luckily to the
mechanics who were close by when it happened.
The UIMofficials were forced to change the circuit dimensions for
safety reasons on Friday qualifying when the weather conditions
combined with the always challenging open segment of the five-
pin almost two kilometer race circuit became a major factor.
It all came down to the final six boat “shoot-out” in Q3. First,
Kuwait’s young driver Youssef Al-Rubayan did a 43.77 second
lap with France’s Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC China Team doing
better with a 43.43 to move to the top of the charts.
However, that was temporary as defending race champion
Shaun Torrente of the Qatar Team improved that time by almost
two seconds doing a 41.44 second lap for a speed of 169.40 Kph.
His teammate Carella came out looking to out qualify Torrente
like he had in the past four races, but wasn’t able to falling short
by almost six-tenths of a second.
Two time pole sitter in Doha Sami Selio of Finland and the
Mad Croc Baba Racing Team now was the fast man with a 41.41
beating the Florida driver Torrente by three one-hundreds of a
second in his BABA racing craft.
Last out was Swedish driver and 2008 race winner Jonas
Andersson of Team Sweden. Despite a huge crash in morning
free practice when he submarined his Danish built Molgaard
boat he somehow managed to run a sparkling 41.34 second
lap reaching pole for only the second time of his career doing a
169.81 Kph lap and a starting spot at the front of the field.
Saturday 15 March has become well known for the famous “Ides
of March” story which is deemed as bad luck day for some while
the full moon is out during this time of the Roman calendar. For
one driver it would play out this way as well.
As the thousands of race fans gathered for the late afternoon
start along the Corniche on the West Bay of Doha, the drivers
lined up ready for the challenge of 40 laps and not all were in the
qualifying starting positions.
The big news was that pole sitter Swede Jonas Andersson had
broken his engine in morning warm-up and would now be forced
to start near the back of the line-up in 11th place.
Italian Marco Gambi gave up his spot in the race in order for the
number one driver on the Motorglass Team Francesco Cantando
to race in the number 23 hull after breaking his own boat.
As the three rows of lights turned suddenly off, the season began
with the now pole sitting Sami Selio getting eaten up with a slow
start by the pair of Qatar Team boats of Torrente and Carella.
They both immediately passed him coming out of the first corner
and pulling ahead crossing the start-finish line for the first time
24 | H20 MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2014
h2oracing.net
