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NEWS
WHAT A WEEKEND IN
#INCREDIBLE INDIA –
TORRENTE WINS TO GO
BACK TO THE TOP OF THE
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
TEAMABU DHABI ALL SET TO CLOSE OUT
DRIVERS AND TEAMSWORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
After a season of near dominance Team Abu Dhabi look all set to
close out the coveted UIM F1H2O Drivers and Teams World
Championships – and securing one or both could well happen in
round 6 at their home Grand Prix on 6-8December, the penultimate
round of the season.
In an unprecedented season its current driver line up has won all
five Grand Prix, picking up 11 of the 15 available podium slots and
locking out the podium at successive Grand Prix in France and China
and are locked in a three way fight for the title.
Shaun Torrente leads the championship standings on 72 points and
a win in Abu Dhabi will hand him the title if teammate Erik Stark,
who is 7 points adrift in second, finishes fifth or lower. To keep his
title hope alive, teammate Thani Al Qemzi has to win. In the teams
championship Abu Dhabi are well and truly in command and sit in
top spot on 126 points, 43 clear of CTIC F1 Shenzhen China and are
poised to lift a third teams championship in four years.
Fourteen years after the UIM F1H2O
World Championship’s first visit to the
subcontinent to Mumbai in 2004, the
series returned for the Grand Prix of India
in Amaravati in November – and the wait
was absolutely worth it.
And what a treat the organisers Malaxmi
Group, the Andhra Pradesh Tourism
Authority and the people of Amaravati
served up - and the drivers and teams
responded with two days of simply brilliant
action on the Krishna River.
Official figures put the race weekend
attendance at 175,000 and the electric
atmosphere, cacophony of noise and colour
and wonderful chaos carried all the way
from the town and the streets to the river
banks as the crowds cheered every passing
boat and raised the roof every time a Team
Amaravati boat went by.
On the water the weekend belonged to
Team Abu Dhabi’s Shaun Torrente who
delivered an imperious performance to
deliver a seventh career pole position and
matched that tally with a lights-to-flag
victory in the race to move back to the top
of the championship standings for the first
time since the season opener in Portugal in
May.
n° 5 DECEMBER | 2018
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