Sunday, July 20, ARENDAL (Norway):
Royal Southampton's Steve Curtis and his team-mate Sheikh Hassan had a disappointing day at the World Championship Powerboat Grand Prix at Arendal, and finished fourth.
Despite the advantage of starting from pole position with their Qatar 96, the race was lost for them at the start, and the points' gap that they had hoped to reduce between themselves and the leaders has now increased.
"We were cut off at the start by Victory 1 and there was no way back from being in the wake of three boats'" said Steve, after the race.
"We pushed hard but gained very little."
That leaves them 48 points behind the leader at the halfway point in the championship, sharing third place with their Qatar team mates, Qatar 95.
In Norway, Jotun's Jorn Tandberg and Inge Brigt Aarbakke produced arguably one of the great drives in one of the most spectacular races seen in Class 1, scything their way past both Victory boats and back-markers to win today's BMW Norwegian Grand Prix in Arendal, sending the tens-of-thousands of home supporters into a complete frenzy.
Last year's winner, Jean-Marc Sanchez, and Abdullah Al Mehairbi in Victory 7 finished second ahead of team-mates and Championship leaders, Victory 1's Mohammed Al Marri and Nadir Bin Hendi.
Starting from second on the front row, Jotun's all-Norwegian pairing, running in only their second race together, found themselves a place down by the end of the opening lap with both Victory boats ahead of them, with Steve Curtis in Qatar 96, the pole sitters trailing in fourth. By the end of lap six, with both Jotun and Victory 1 having taken one long-lap, they came into the start-finish turn side-by-side. Jotun had the inside-line, held their nerve, went tight in the turn and moved into second place.
Five laps later, with the leading trio having completed both mandatory long-laps, it was Vic tory 7's turn to feel the heat as Jotun bore down on them - again as they approached the start-finish turn - and despite a pair of back-markers in front of them, Jotun scythed their way through the traffic - at one point coming together with Victory 7 - before passing them on the outside of the turn to take the lead, going on to win the 17-lap, 96.21Nm BMW Norwegian Grand Prix by 13 seconds.
