Doha, capital city of Qatar, last week hosted penultimate round of Aquabike World Championship. Runabout GP1 and Ski GP1 both saw major upsets at the top of the leaderboard, and in both classes it's basically down to whoever wins the final round in Abu Dhabi, two weeks from now.
With a script right out of Hollywood, in Runabout GP1 after winning 6 races in a row Yousef Al-Abdul Razzaq again dominated qualifying with the fastest lap that was more than 6 seconds faster than second-placed Cyrille Lemoine! Heat 1 seemed like it would be the continuation of the qualifying, with Yousef Al-Abdul Razzaq taking an early lead. But, on lap 7 a drive shaft snapped and Yousef had to retire. He was still in the points lead, even though Cyrille Lemoine won that heat. For next-days heat 2, Al-Abdul Razzaq had the machine repaired and started from the back of the group due to DNF in heat 1. One by one, he kept passing racers, but on lap 2, after climbing up to 6th, he illegally skipped a turn and was instantly disqualified for cutting the course, again earning 0 points. Cyrille Lemoine won again, and now sits atop the World Championship with 10 points ahead of Yousef Al-Abdul Razzaq.
In Ski GP1 points leader Alberto Monti had similar fate in heat 1, with a lap 5 mechanical problem which forced him out of the race with 0 points. But, he came back strong in heat 2, winning it and coming just within 2 points of the new championship leader Tiago Sousa before the final round in Abu Dhabi.
It was only in freestyle there were no big surprises. It was one more "Rok-show", with Rok Florjancic winning and clinching the World Championship title even before the final round. Congratulations to Rok on a great run and a great season. Currently third placed in the championship is XJETSKI.com sponsored Aleksandar Petrovic, who has a very slim chance of moving up to the second spot at the final round in Abu Dhabi -- he needs a second place finish in both heats while at the same time, Nac Florjancic would have to score 0 in both heats. Fourth placed Valerio Calderoni has an even slimmer chance of moving up to third spot in Abu Dhabi -- he has to win both heats while Aleksandar Petrovic would have to score 0 in both heats.
Complete results:
