Al-Qamzi finishes second behind Chiappe in China

Team Abu Dhabi's Thani Al Qamzi maintained his composure and drove superbly to finish second overall behind the defending world champion Philippe Chiappe at the Grand Prix of China, round four of the 2015 UIM F1 H2O World Championship, on the Lui River on Friday.

The leading duo controlled the race from the green flag. Chiappe led from start-to-finish and moved into an unofficial 12-point outright lead of the World Championship with a seven-second win, as Al Qamzi fended off a persistent challenge from Finland's Sami Selio to maintain second place and claim 15 valuable championship points. "This was a long race and my strategy worked perfectly," said Al Qamzi. "I managed to stay ahead of Sami and shadow Philippe to the finish and that keeps Team Abu Dhabi in the hunt for the Teams' Championship."

Kuwait's Yousef Al Rubayan stayed ahead of the Victory Team's Shaun Torrente to claim fourth and Norwegian Marit Stromoy rounded off the top six. Team Abu Dhabi's second driver Alex Carella had won the last three races in Luizhou and started this race from eighth. He made a charge from the outset and was holding sixth when he was side-lined with mechanical issues on lap five.

Team Abu Dhabi's Rashed Al Qemzi qualified on pole for the second F-4S Trophy race of the weekend and looked set to have recovered superbly from Thursday's crash when he reached the finish in first position. But the Emirati was deemed to have jump started - as he had done in Portugal in the summer - and was awarded a one-lap penalty that deprived him of the win.

Germany's Mike Szymura was the main beneficiary and duly recorded his fourth win of the season from four starts. Al Qemzi's team-mate Mohammed Al Mehairbi finished an impressive third and moved up to second.

Source: Khaleej Times