Dubai: Team Abu Dhabi dominated qualifying with defending world champion Shaun Torrente leading teammate Thani Al Qamzi in the top two spots on the grid heading into Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portugal, Round 2 of the 2019 UIM F1 H2O World Championship being held in Portimao.
In a tense qualifying session that witnessed Victory Team’s two boats failing to go past the first session of qualifying, it was Torrente completing his hat-trick in Portimao with a third successive pole with a time 42.58 secs in as many years on the Arade River circuit, late on Saturday.
“I am truly lucky and blessed to have such a great team backing me at this moment. It was not an easy task out there due to the winds, but I think I managed to do enough and be at the top of the grid for tomorrow,” Torrente said.
Teammate Al Qamzi will start in second following his best time of 42.66 secs, while Marit Stromoy will be in third (42.86 secs) followed by Team Amaravati’s Swedish driver Jonas Andersson in fourth (43.13 secs) when racing gets under way from 6.30pm UAE time.
