Fazza are fastest as they hope to catch up with Qatar

The Emirati pair of Al Marri and Al Zaffain, who are fourth overall in the championship, were more than six seconds quicker than the Mouawed boat.

The Fazza team of Mohammed Al Marri and Arif Saif Al Zaffain will line up for the pole position run in the 2012 UIM X-CAT World Series this morning in confident mood after they set the fastest time in practice yesterday.

The Emirati pair, who are fourth overall in the championship, were more than six seconds quicker than the Swiss-American duo of Omar Danial and Gary Ballough in their Mouawed boat, and will be favourites to finish on pole for the 3pm race after the hour-and-a-half run at the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club.

The Spirit of Abu Dhabi boat, with Rashid Suhail Al Tayer as driver and Ahmad Mohammad Hassan as the throttle man, were third fastest, followed by the Abu Dhabi Racing Team comprising the American driver Scott Gillman and the UAE's Ahmad Ali Al Hameli in fourth place.

The Sky Dive Dubai team of Eisa Al Ali and Juma Mattar Al Mazroui, who did not start the first round last month, clocked the fifth best time followed by Extreme Marine and Raheeb from Kuwait.

After the first two rounds of racing held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last month, the Qatar Team of Mohammed Al Nasser and Hamad Jassim Mohammed top the overall standings with 600 points, followed by Mouawed.

The third heat of the X-Cat Series that was to be held at the Dubai International Marine Club last weekend had to be postponed until April because of rough weather. The final round of the series will be staged at the Fujairah International Marine Club in mid April.

* Agency