Kaunas, Lithuania: Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Qemzi proved that the decision to give him a UIM F2 World Championship programme was a good one at the Lithuanian Grand Prix on Kaunas Reservoir.
The talented young Emirati gave Team Abu Dhabi a stunning pole position for the first time in this prestigious racing discipline and then went on to finish the yellow flag dominated race in first place to storm into the series lead.
In a race that eventually got going at the third attempt with a rolling start under a yellow flag, Al Qemzi led from start-to-finish and fended off the challenge from Lithuania’s Edgaras Riabko to claim the victory.
Riabko was passed in the closing seconds by Sweden’s Johan Osterberg, who claimed second position.
“This is a memorable day for Team Abu Dhabi, Rashed and everyone connected with the team. Rashed showed in qualifying that he was the fastest man on the course and he overcame a very difficult and interrupted race to claim the victory,” said Salem Al Remeithi, general manager of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC).
Al Qemzi claimed his pole position with a time of 42.77sec. Local hero Edgaras Riabko qualified second (42.98sec) and Tobias Munthe-Kaas made the successful switch from the UIM F4-S racing discipline to snatch third (43.00sec).
The leading 15 drivers qualified for the race, but Al Qemzi’s teammate Mohammed Al Mehairbi was one of seven entrants who was forced to run in a Repecharge race on the 1.66km course early on Sunday afternoon to try and qualify for the main race. He had been eliminated from the original qualifying session in Q1.
That Repecharge race list included Uvis Slakteris, who had qualified in fourth only to discover that his Molgaard hull was underweight. Italy’s Alberto Comparato went on to win the Repecharge and make the main Grand Prix, with Slakteris finishing second and Al Mehairbi slotting into third place and making the race by the skin of his teeth. He eventually retired from 16th place after 30 laps. Italy’s David Del Pin pipped Riabko to victory in the Match Race although Riabko won the Speed Record from Owen Jelf.
“Since last year we have made big step improvements to the boat that Alex Carella used in Finland. It was very flat out there for the whole pole position and I’m optimistic now that we can do well every time. We don’t just build boats for smooth conditions,” said Abu Dhabi’s team manager and 10-time UIM F1 H2O World Champion Guido Cappellini.
UIM F2 Lithuanian Grand Prix — result (unofficial)
1. Rashed Al Qemzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi 48 laps
2. Johan Österberg (SWE) Team AJO @5.41sec
3. Edgaras Riabko (LIT) F2 Lithuania @6.94sec
4. Nelson Morin (FRA) F1 China CTIC Team @11.60sec
5. Owen Jelf (GBR) Owen Jelf Racing @14.72sec
6. Erik Edin (SWE) Team Edin @16.69sec
7. Ola Pettersson (SWE) Skåne Racing Team F2 @18.60sec
DNF. Mohammed Al-Mehairbi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi
