Abu Dhabi: Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansouri are ready to battle the odds stacked against them in the Dubai Grand Prix on Saturday to keep alive their title hopes in the UIM XCAT World Series.

After a day of spectacular action dominated by XDubai’s Arif Saif Al Zafein and Nadir Bin Hindi on Friday, the championship leaders had extended their advantage over Al Tayer and Al Mansouri to 26 points.

Al Zafein and Bin Hindi will start the Saturday afternoon penultimate round of the 2015 XCAT World Series in pole position after recording a quickest lap of 2 min 33.93 sec in an exciting qualifying session.

They then boosted their overall championship lead winning the Dubai Duty Free Speed Cat Run, which took the form of a thrilling head-to-head drag race knockout contest over a one-kilometre course.

But a defiant Al Mansouri still has hopes that he and Al Mansouri in Team Abu Dhabi 5 can deliver a second world powerboat title inside a month to Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC), which stages the final championship round next weekend.

“We came here knowing that XDubai would be tough to beat on their home waters, especially in calm conditions like we had today,” he said. “But the forecast for tomorrow is for rougher waters and we think we can take advantage of that.

“The odds are against us now, but we will give it everything we’ve got and anything can happen in racing. The championship is still there to be won, and we still hope to have a chance of doing that in Abu Dhabi next week.

“Whatever happens, the world champions will be carrying the UAE flag, and we can all look forward to that.”

Dubai’s Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali finished second in the pole position race with a best lap of 2 min 36.34 sec, while Al Tayer and Al Mansouri will start the Dubai Grand Prix in third spot after recording a time of 2 min 36.51 sec.

Majid Al Mansouri and Rashed Al Qamzi in Team Abu Dhabi 4, teaming up for their XCAT Series debut, will line up in a creditable seventh place.

In the quarter finals of the Speed Cat Run, they lost out to teammates Al Tayer and Al Mansouri. who finished third in the series, with XDubai’s Al Zafein and Nadir Bin Hindi going on to overpower the T-Bone Station pairing of Giovanni Cappittela and Luca Fendi in the final.

Al Tayer and Al Mansouri are trying to match the performance of Team Abu Dhabi’s John Tomlinson and Gary Ballough, who captured the UIM Class 1 world title earlier this month.

Team Abu Dhabi is supported by Etihad Airways as official carrier and sponsor. The team runs under the patronage of Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Advisor to the UAE President and Chairman of ADIMSC.

The Dubai Grand Prix fires into life at 2pm on Saturday.