Frenchman Philippe Chiappe clinched his third successive UIM F1 H2O World Championship title after a thrilling climax to the season at the Grand Prix of Sharjah on Khaled Lagoon on Friday.

Needing to finish inside the top 10, regardless of whether arch rival Shaun Torrente of the Victory Team won the race outright, Chiappe made a superb start and stormed passed pole sitter Jonas Andersson on the first lap.

He eventually ceded the race win to Torrente and cruised to the finish in second place to claim a third title for the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team. In the last F4-S race of the season, Team Abu Dhabi’s Mohammed Al-Mehairbi qualified second behind Jeremy Brisset and shadowed the Frenchman and Finland’s Kalle Viippo to the end of a processional 22-lap finale to the championship to confirm sixth in the points’ standings.

Brisset duly won his second race of the weekend by 2.06 seconds, but missed out on the runner-up spot in the series to Dutchman Ferdinand Zandbergen. Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al-Qamzi had won the title last weekend in Abu Dhabi.

It was Victory Team’s first Grand Prix win in only their second season in the championship, with Torrente clinching a much-deserved runners-up slot in the driver’s championship and Victory taking second place behind CTIC F1 Shenzhen China in the Team championship.

Chiappe made a blistering start to jump pole-sitter Jonas Andersson, with Torrente matching the move and pressing the race leader as the two title rivals then edged away from the chasing pack of Jonas Andersson, Erik Stark, Bartek Marszalek and Alex Carella.

On lap 14 of 45 the yellow flag was raised when Chiappe’s teammate Xiong Ziwei barrel-rolled out of the race. The boats were held for five laps and then released with Torrente making an immediate move to pass Chiappe.

Sami Selio joined the chase and passed Carella on lap 20, the Italian taking back the place a lap later, then on lap 23 Stark faltered and lost ground, slipping to fifth, with Carella now leading the chase to try to overhaul Chiappe and Andersson, with Selio pressing frantically and trying everything to pass Carella.

Out front Torrente continued to stretch his lead, going on to take the chequered flag and his maiden win for Victory Team by 25.77 seconds. Despite the intense pressure Chiappe delivered a true champions’ drive and held his nerve and held off the challenge of the duo behind him to take his sixth podium of the year and become only the third driver in the 33-year history of the sport to win a hat-trick of world titles.

Carella looked set for third place when on lap 42 he suddenly retired to compound a bad afternoon for Team Abu Dhabi, teammates Thani Al Qamzi going out on lap 31 and debutant Rashed Al Qamzi on lap 11.