Dubai pair make waves in Sweden

Al Zafeen and bin Hendi recover from crash to win the second race in superb but controversial style 24 hours later.

The Fazza team extended their UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship points lead yesterday with victory in Sweden.

UDDEVALLA, Sweden // Less than 24 hours after smashing into a rival Class 1 raceboat at over 150kph, Nader bin Hendi and Arif al Zafeen underlined their status as world champions with a superb yet controversial victory in race two at the Swedish Grand Prix yesterday. The UAE pair steered their patched up Class 1 machine to a 21-second victory over Rashed al Tayer and Giovanni Carpitella, race one winners in Team Abu Dhabi on Saturday, with Skydive Dubai's Talib el Sayed and Abdullah al Mehairbi in third.

It was the fifth win in six starts for the Fazza 3 crew in 2010 - an incredible result for a boat that spent the night being painstakingly 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 39mins 19.29secs 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." The race was 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 the Dubai pair of bin Hendi and al Zafeen who kept their nerve, refusing 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 one-two-three were al Mehairbi and el Sayed who added third place to their runners-up spot from race one. "I am so happy. This was even better than our race together yesterday when we were second," said al Mehairbi." 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 after a heavy crash in Saturday's race, 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." 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. * Agency

2. Team Abu Dhabi - Al Tayer/Carpitella (UAE/I) 39m:40.28s 2. Skydive Dubai - El Sayed/Al Mehairbi (UAE) 39m:59.70s 3. Primatist - Giorgi/Cappellini (I) + 2 laps