Qatar’s Carella and Torrente to resume action

Qatar’s defending UIM F1 H20 world champion Alex Carella and team-mate Shaun Torrente return to racing action in this weekend’s Grand Prix of the Republic of Tatarstan on the Nizhny Kaban Lake in the capital Kazan. This year’s calendar featured a gap of over three months since the Grand Prix of Qatar at the start of March, but the Qatar racing duo have been keeping race trim with a recent three-day test session on the Po River in Italy. “We were in Italy to test the boats with Alex and Shaun on the Po River,” enthused Khalid bin Arhama al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), which runs under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani. “It was a good opportunity for us to try and select the correct propellers for the race and for qualifying and we found the session very useful. It was also good practice for our drivers after such a long break in F1 racing since the race in Doha.” Al-Kuwari is confident that improvements have been made to the Italian-built DAC boats since Torrente and Carella finished fourth and fifth in the opening round of the series behind early season leader and race winner Ahmed al-Hameli of Team Abu Dhabi, Frenchman Phillipe Chiappe and Finland’s Sami Selio. “We have good memories of a first and third position for Alex and Jay (Price) last season and we are hopeful that we can get first and second this time in Kazan. “It was fantastic that we were able to get almost three days of solid testing in,” said Carella, talking about the Po River test session. “We’ve learned a few more things about our boats and feel we have made them faster and this was our goal. “It was a treat to have Shaun bring his wife along and, with my girlfriend, the four of us were able to do some great bonding. This, I feel, is so important in the long run when it comes to having a true race team ‘family’.”Qatar’s Khalid Saleh al-Shamlan finished a fine ninth overall on his debut with the full Qatar F1 team in Doha Bay in March, but other commitments mean that the Qatar driver will not race alongside Carella and Torrente in Kazan. Khalid Abdullah al-Kuwari collected seven points from his first two races in the F-4S Drivers Eurofin Trophy and holds joint seventh in the F-4S Drivers’ Championship after two rounds. The Qatari will represent the Qatar Team in Tatarstan and faces a strong challenge from early season leader Matthew Palfreyman of the Atlantic Team and Jesper Forss of Team Sweden. The weekend’s action gets underway with technical scrutineering tomorrow and the first of the free practice sessions for the F1 runners from11.15hrs on Friday morning. The F-4Sboats will take part in their time trials at 13.00hrs and the first of their two 20-minute races at 17.00hrs. Qualification for Saturday’s F1 Grand Prix of Tatarstan will start at 18.00hrs (17.00hrs Doha time). There will be a second free practice session at the same time on Saturday morning and the second of the weekend’s F-4S races starts at 15.00hrs after timed trials at13.00hrs. The Grand Prix of the Republic of Tatarstan starts at 17.00hrs (16.00hrs Doha time) on Saturday afternoon.