Saturday, 1 March, DOHA (Qatar)
After surviving a high-speed crash that all but destroyed their boat, Qatar 96, during Friday's Edox Pole Position practice, Sheikh Hassan and Royal Southampton's Steve Curtis were forced to turn to their spare boat, for the Grand Prix race in Qatar the opening round of the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
It was their first grand prix together, yet their spare boat powered by Mercury V8 power-plants as opposed to the Skema V12s of their original boat., gave them second place just 24 hours after being pulled from Doha Bay and is more than they could have expected, or hoped for.
"The way I see it is we are five points behind Victory 1 and that’s a far better position than I was in this time last year," said Steve.
"The spare boat is nowhere near the pace of the Victory boat so we knew that if they held it together they’d be well ahead of us. Under those circumstances, I’ll take second any day of the week."
Reigning Class 1 World Powerboat Champion Arif Saif Al Zafeen made the perfect start to the defence of his title, winning the Grand Prix, in an emphatic manner.''
Partnered by throttleman, Nadir bin Hendi, the Victory 1 duo led for the majority of the 20-lap, 95.60Nm race to win by more than 26 seconds from Qatar’s Sheikh Hassan and Steve Curtis. Third home, some two minutes further adrift were Victory Team’s Abdullah Al Mehairbi and Jean Marc-Sanchez in Victory 7.
With 20 points in the bag from the first round of the eight-race series, the Victory 1 crew lead the standings, but they will be well aware of the threat they face this season from runners-up Sheikh Hassan and Steve .
Equally delighted with third place was Jean-Marc Sanchez, the man who partnered Al Zafeen to the World and European crowns in 2007.
The 2008 Class 1 World Powerboat Championship now heads to Europe for round two and the Montenegrin Grand Prix in Budva on Sunday, 25 May.
