Dubai’s Victory Team opened the defence of their UIM Class 1 World Championship title in style, winning Race 1 of the season-opening Mediterranean Grand Prix in Ibiza in dominant fashion.
Arif Al Zafeen and throttleman Nadir bin Hendi completed the 13-lap race in a time of 35 minutes 41.85 seconds, with Newstar-Poliform’s Guido Cappellini and Andrey Kitashev a distant second, 49.39 seconds behind the Dubai team.
Relekta-Zabo-Isiklar’s Ugur Isik and Christian Zaborowski completed the podium, 53.75 seconds further back to Victory Team.
The Team Abu Dhabi combination of Falah Al Mansoori and Rashed Al Tayer finished fifth overall and will be hoping to do better in Race 2 today, which gets under way at 17:15 UAE time.
Earlier in the morning, for the first time in Class 1 qualifying for the pole position spot, two teams posted identical times.
LFF10’s Luca Fendi and Giovanni Carpitella and Victory’s Al Zafeen and Bin Hendi could not be separated in the two-hour qualifying session for Race 1, with both posting two minutes 46.45 seconds on their best lap.
“This is a big step forward. To match the best team in the world is always our target,” said Fendi.
Meanwhile, in the new V1 World Championship, Tommy One won Race 1, with Karelpiu and Chaudron claiming second and third place respectively.