The UAE pair steered their patched up Class 1 cat to a 21-second victory over race one winners Rashed Al Tayer and Giovanni Carpitella in team Abu Dhabi with Skydive Dubai’s Talib El Sayed and Abdullah Al Mehairbi in third.

 

It was the fifth win in six starts for the Fazza crew in 2010 – an incredible result for a boat that spent the night being put back together again by an army of dedicated mechanics and boat technicians. Yet despite the round-the-clock attention, there appeared little wrong with the Victory Team-built boat as it covered the 63.74Nm course in 39m:19.29s at an average speed of 178.99kmph.

 

“The boat felt exactly the same as it did before yesterday’s race, which is an incredible tribute to the back up team we have on Fazza and within Victory Team,” said a delighted Bin Hendi. “It was a fantastic performance – the crew did an amazing job and without their skills and hard work through the night we wouldn’t have raced today.”

 

The race was ultimately won in the flat-out battle to the first turn buoy with Team Abu Dhabi, Skydive Dubai and Fazza all racing hull-to-hull in the fight to gain a crucial edge. While the Abu Dhabi boat had the advantage of the inside line, it was Bin Hendi and Al Zafeen who kept their nerve, refused to back off and ultimately took the turn in the lead.

 

Although Team Abu Dhabi blinked first, Al Tayer was far from impressed. “We got a great start but Fazza was too close at the turn so we backed off and were forced to settle for second place,” he said. “I’m happy to get second but I think they came from up to down and should have been penalised.”

 

Naturally, it was not a view shared by Bin Hendi. “We were all running side by side to the first turn but I kept on the throttles to the very last second and just as Arif turned we hooked into the gap and managed to get into the lead,” said the Fazza man.

 

Making it a UAE 1-2-3 were Al Mehairbi and El Sayed who added third place to their runners-up spot from race one. “I am so happy today – this was even better than our race together yesterday when we were second,” said Al Mehairbi. “We pushed very hard and made no mistakes. It’s true, we almost missed a turn buoy at the start but I corrected it at the last minute – we are getting so much better together and there will be no more errors from us.”

 

While it was a remarkable comeback by the Fazza crew, there was no happy ending for Norway’s Welmax. Despite also working through the night to get the boat back in race condition, the Welmax team was left frustrated as pilots Kolbjorn Selmer and Jorn Tandberg – who managed to climb into the boat just seconds before the green flag - were forced to retire without getting over the start line.

 

“It was very disappointing but the boat needs a lot of work done to it after yesterday’s crash,” said Selmer. “Body work, mechanically, engines… there is a lot to be done over the next few weeks but we aim to be back in the field by the Italian Grand Prix in Stresa in October.”

 

Fazza’s win means they move to 108 points in the championship standings with Skydive Dubai in second (86) and Team Abu Dhabi third (66) with six races remaining in Stresa, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

 

 

1. Fazza – Bin Hendi/Al Zafeen (UAE)                            39m:19.29s

2. Team Abu Dhabi – Al Tayer/Carpitella (UAE/I)            39m:40.28s

2. Skydive Dubai – El Sayed/Al Mehairbi (UAE)               39m:59.70s