The Qatar Team are proving themselves a powerful force this season as American Jay Price and Italian team mate Alex Carella finished first and second place in the second straight race of the F1h2o World Championship 2011 last weekend, the 13th Annual Grand Prix of Portugal.

Norwegian female driver Marit Stromoy also took centre stage during part of the race that took place on the Arade River in Portimao, Portugal. She first had a run in with Team Abu Dhabi driver Ahmed Al Hameli who jumped the start and slid over and made contact with Marit’s boat before finally crashing out on lap nine. Ahmed later received a red card from the officials and will miss the next event in Kazan in Russia in July.

Marit then reached first position with American driver Shaun Torrente. However the two ended up touching and blew their chances for a first win. Their bump resulted in the boats being moved back to the start pontoon for a restart. Subsequently Price gained control and quickly moved to a two second lead after one lap with Carella second, Al Qamzi sliding into third and Frenchman Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC China Team into fourth. And that’s how the memorable 42-lap race ended.

Defending World Champion Sami Selio was fifth for his first finish of the season in his Team Mad Croc F1 boat while Davide Padovan was seventh in the other Team Mad Croc boat. Unfortunately local driver Duarte Benavente who was celebrating his 100th race (see last week’s post) only made it to eighth place.

Jay Price now leads the UIM F1H2O World Championship with 40 points, 10 points ahead of Alex Carella in second and Philippe Chiappe in third. Next stop on the exciting championship’s circuit will be Russia and Kazan on July 16 and July 17.

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