Tonsberg: Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Qemzi and Rashid Al Tayer head to Norway’s oldest city of Tonsberg this weekend to tackle the EDH Grand Prix of Norway (Tonsberg Batrace), the third round of the UIM F2 World Championship.
Al Qemzi is the defending champion and third place on the famous fjord course last season consolidated the Emirati’s championship lead before he went on to seal the shortened championship in Portugal last autumn.
Following the cancellation of the second round of this year’s championship in Denmark in June because of adverse weather conditions, Al Qemzi arrives in Norway lying fourth in the title race behind Italy’s Alberto Comparato, Lithuania’s Edgaras Riabko and Germany’s Stefan Hagin. They filled the podium positions at the opening round in Kaunas earlier in the summer where Al Qemzi was fourth.
Last year’s Tonsberg winner Pierre Lundin is not racing this season, but Al Qemzi and Team Abu Dhabi colleague Rashid Al Tayer face competition from a formidable line-up of 29 provisional entries all trying to qualify for 18 places in Sunday afternoon’s EDH Grand Prix of Norway.
With the news that Gordon Cook Racing will not be running David Del Pin or Grant Trask, Team Abu Dhabi faces competition from Dubai’s Victory Team, which is making its first appearance in Tonsberg with four-time UIM F1 H2O World Champion Alex Carella and Mansour Al Mansouri.
Last year’s race runner-up Konstantin Ustinov could feature strongly as part of the New Star team, while American Brent Dillard, Spaniard Hector Sanz, the Norwegian duo of Frode Sundsdal and Mette Bjerknaes, the Swedish trio of Daniel Segenmark, Oskar Samuelsson and Johan Osterberg and England’s Owen Jelf will be chasing championship points.
Once Portuguese veteran Duarte Benavente and the likes of Christian Carlsen, Gavin Bricker and Tobias Munthe-Kaas are thrown into the mix, the importance of a good Norlux Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon is emphasised.
“Formula Two is very strong this season and it will not be easy to defend the title with so any drivers out there fighting,” said Al Qemzi.
“We made a strong start at the first race in Lithuania and then the second one was cancelled. That makes it all the more important that I achieve a good finish this weekend. The team has been preparing hard for this race and we are confident that we can push for pole position and fight for the win.”
2018 UIM F2 World Championship — positions after round 2:
1. Alberto Comparato (ITA) 20 pts
2. Edgaras Riabko (LIT) 15 pts
3. Stefan Hagin (DEU) 12 pts
4. Rashed Al Qemzi (UAE) 9 pts
5. Tobias Munthe-Kaas (NOR) 7 pts
6. Brent Dillard (USA) 5 pts
7. Daniel Segenmark (SWE) 4 pts
8. Duarte Benavente (PRT) 3 pts
9. Oskar Samuelsson (SWE) 2 pts
10. Mette Bjerknaes (NOR) 1pt