with the crowds cheering like mad for the home standing
boats who were now in first and second positions.
No more than a lap later Selio pulled off the west side of
the race circuit with engine trouble ending his race before
it even got started.
A lap later, pole qualifying Andersson also left the circuit
on the far back straightaway with more engine problems
and a dream of a second victory in Doha, gone with it.
On lap four both rookie hopeful Erik Stark of Team
Nautica and Al-Rubayan of the F1 GC Atlantic Team came
to a halt and suddenly the field was down to nine boats
with 36 more laps left to be run.
The Grand Prix settled into a two boat race between the
Qatar Team teammates with Torrente holding off Carella
as they whistled by back markers like they were tied
to moorings on the circuit with Miami driver Torrente
holding a constant and steady three second margin over
the Italian.
Then, with just nine laps to go, bad luck once again hit
Torrente who slowed, then pushed his canopy lid off
sending it flying as the boat hesitated and then the three-
time North American champion headed quickly back to
the paddock with smoke filling the cockpit, leaving the
young American with a “hot seat” and no points on the
afternoon.
His demise handed the lead to Carella who knew all he
had to do was to coast home.
For the recent winner of his hometown race at the 24
Hours of Rouen, France’s Philippe Chiappe was the only
other driver on the same lap as Alex and would finish
almost 35 seconds behind Carella in second.
However, more importantly, Philippe would pick up 15
valuable points in his quest for his first world title for the
CTIC China Team pilot.
Moving up quickly was Portugal’s Duarte Benavente who
would come home in third when it was over, reaching the
podium for the first time since Portimao in 2009 for the
F1 GC Atlantic Team.
Finishing fourth was the driver from Milan, Cantando,
charging up from the back on a good run ahead of the
tours youngest driver Filip Roms of the Mad Croc Baba
Racing Team who had a career best fifth place for the 20
year pilot.
Norway’s Marit Stromoy had another top ten finish taking
sixth for the Team Nautica veteran, while the second year
driver Zi-Wei “Leo” Xiong of the CTIC China Team had his
career best result with a seventh place.
Poland’s Bartek Marszalek had another nice top-ten
performance, finishing eighth for the Motorglass Team
and the final driver to complete the event on Doha Bay.
In the end Alex Carella would win by 34.61 seconds
reversing his fortunes from a year ago in Doha when he
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