Saturday,
15 June, ISTANBUL (Turkey): HUB Team Australia’s Darren Nicholson and Ross
Willaton produced a spectacular performance in testing conditions to win a
dramatic and incident-filled race 1 of the Isiklar Turkish Grand Prix.
Starting
just their third race together in their second Grand Prix in Class 1,
Nicholson and Willaton mastered the choppy and tricky seas that spectaculary
caught out defending World Champions Arif Al Zaffain and Mohammed Al Marri,
spinning out early in the race to bring out the red flag and force a
re-start.
Turkey’s
Ugur Isik and Norway’s Christian Zaborowski repaid their team’s efforts to
repair Zabo-Isiklar in time after their crash in race 2 in the season-opener,
taking a brilliant second place after initially starting in eighth place, to
finish ahead of Class 1 newcomers Miles Jennings and Alfredo Amato in
LFFendi8.
After winning the drag race to the first turn, pole-sitters Al Zaffain and Al Marri led the Australian duo and LFFendi10’s Luca Formilli Fendi and Giovanni Carpitella at the end of the start lap, but at the second turn of lap 2 hooked the boat and spinning out.
Luckily
the boat suffered little damage and the Championship leaders’ were able to
line up for the re-start.
HUB
Team Australia led from the re-start and traded places with LFFendi10 and
Victory after the intial bout of short laps, resuming the lead on lap 4, only
to be passed by Victory a lap later, with LFFendi10 now third.
But on
lap 6 Victory hooked and spun out again and stopped, but this time were
unable to get one engine re-started, retiring from the race.
The
Australians swept into the lead and for the next four laps were able to
maintain a comfortable 10-second lead over LFFendi10, when on lap 11 their
[Formilli Fendi and Crapitella] hopes of a certain podium ended, a damaged
torque sensor ending their race.
Nicholson
and Willaton were able to ease up and close out the race in 40mins 2.83s,
becoming the first Australians to win since 2002.
Behind
the battle at the front, Ugur Isik and Christian Zaborowski steadily moved up
and through the field, moving from eighth to fourth before the red flag. A
poor re-start saw them down in fifth, then move up to fourth on lap 6 after
passing Team Abu Dhabi and LFFendi8.
The
exits of Victory and LFFendi10 elevated the Turkish-Norwegian duo to second
place and a well deserved podium.
After
a frustrating debut outing in China, Miles Jennigs and Alfredo Amoto produced
a more than impressive performance, maintaining a middle order position
throughout the race, keeping a hard charging Team Abu Dhabi behind them in
the closing stages, to complete the podium.
Despite
taking the chequered flag in fourth place, Team Abu Dhabi’s Faleh Al Mansoori
and Rashed Al Tayer were later disqualified for re-passing a turn mark after
hooking the boat and spinning out, their disqualifaction elevating Class 1
debutant, Tarik Oktem, and Giampaolo Montavoci in Poliform to fourth place
ahead of Gian Maria Gabbiani and Luca Nicolini in FA.RO ACCIAI.
Today’s
win moves HUB Team Australia’s Nicholson and Willaton to the top of the
Championship standings on 44 points, with Victory in second place and
Zabo-Isiklar in third.
TURKISH
GRAND PRIX – RACE 1- results
1. 7
HUB Team Australia - D Nicholson (AUS) / R Willaton (AUS) – 40.02.83
2. 91
Zabo-Isiklar - U Isik (TUR) / C Zaborowski (NOR) + 51.45s
3. 8
LFFendi8 - Miles Jennings (GBR) / A Amato (ITA) + 02.10.00s
4. 74
Poliform – T Oktem (TUR) / G Montavoci (SUI) + 02.48.00s
5. 23
FA.RO. ACCIAI - G M Gabbiani (ITA) / L Nicolini (ITA) + 1 lap
10 LFFendi10 - L Formilli Fendi (ITA) / G Carpitella (ITA) - dnf
3 Victory - A Al Zaffain (UAE) / M Al Marri (UAE) - dnf
5 Team Abu Dhabi - F Al Mansoori (UAE) / R Al Tayer (UAE) - dq
WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP - after race 3
|
Saturday, June 15, 2013
NICHOLSON AND WILLATON WIN THRILLER IN TURKEY / CLASS 1 WORLD POWERBOAT CHAMPIONSHIP
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