Dubai’s Fazza claims 1-2 in Rio

Rio De Janeiro (BRAZIL): Brazilian-bred Gloria De Campeao may have won the world’s richest horse race – the Dubai World Cup – but in Rio de Janeiro it was Dubai horsepower that dominated the first Class 1 Grand Prix meeting staged on Brazilian waters, fittingly at the Marina da Gloria. Shrugging off electrical problems that left them racing with virtually no on-board aids, Arif Al Zafeen and Nader Bin Hendi made it two wins from two starts in the Brazilian city on Sunday notching up a second straight win at the opening round of the 2010 UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
The Fazza 3 crew won one of the closest races in recent memory to edge out team-mates Mohammed Al Marri and Abdullah Al Mehairbi in Fazza 1 – making it a second 1-2 finish for the Fazza crews – with Italy’s Giampaolo Montavoci claiming an impressive third place alongside F1 Powerboat World Champion Guido Cappellini in DUEMME Foresti & Suardi.
It was a hard-fought win for the defending world champions who won the opening race in Rio on Saturday despite losing power to their dashboard instruments with less just three laps gone. Unable to resolve the problem overnight, Al Zafeen and Bin Hendi went out for Sunday’s eighteen-lap race virtually blind, relying on their racing touch to get them home.
Racing at an average speed of 160.74kmph, Fazza 3 took the chequered flag by just over fourteen seconds from Fazza 1 with Montavoci and Cappellini a further fourteen seconds adrift in third.
At one stage just seven seconds separated the first four boats with the destiny of the title in the balance until late in the race when Fazza 3 piled on the pressure and eased away from the chasing pack.
Ten-time world champion Guido Cappellini returned to a Class 1 cockpit for the first time in more than fifteen years yet he leaves Rio with a fourth and a third place finish to his name and holds third place in the overall world standings.