Team AD’s Qemzi completes pole position hat-trick in Italy
Rashid Al Qemzi celebrates after taking pole position at the UIM F2 World Championship Grand Prix of Italy on Sunday.
Just as he did during the previous two rounds in Lithuania and Norway, Qemzi dominated qualifying in Brindisi where two of the three stages were carried over from last night.
After setting fastest times in the first two qualifying phases, the Emirati driver won the ten-boat shootout with a lap of 34.47, ahead of Sweden’s Bimba Sjöholm, 35.16, and Norway’s Tobias Munthe-Kaas, 35.34.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Tayer set the seventh fastest time with a lap of 36.19.
Qemzi, the 2017 F2 world champion, leads the 2019 series by 14 points from Dutchman Ferdinand Zandbergen - fifth fastest in qualifying - ahead of the Grand Prix of Italy which roars to life at 6.30pm local time in Brindisi.
Meanwhile, H2O Racing has announced that the city of Xiamen in Fujian Province in south eastern China will host Round 4 of the 2019 UIM F1H2O World Championship on Oct.18-20, replacing the event scheduled to be held in Xiangyang in September.
The news sees the championship returning to Xiamen for the first time since 1997 for the 25th Grand Prix to be held in China as the sport marks its 14th consecutive year of racing in the People’s Republic.
Heading to Xiamen and into the second half of an already captivating season the battle for the drivers’ world title is evenly balanced following two enthralling Grand Prix in Portugal and France, with Team Abu Dhabi’s defending world champion Shaun Torrente and Team Amaravati’s Jonas Andersson each with a win apiece and a podium and separated by just three points, 35-32, Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al Qemzi in third place on 27 points.
