Fazza lead with flawless laps

Fazza, piloted by Nader bin Hendi and Arif al Zafeen, sets the fastest time in free practice yesterday in Stresa, Italy.

It was business as usual for Nader bin Hendi and Arif al Zafeen, the UAE's world champions, as they set their sights on the Class 1 European Powerboat Championship yesterday. But the testing session at the Italian Grand Prix in Stresa for round four of the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship is being played out against the backdrop of talks over the future of the sport.

The seven teams, who compete in 12 races at six grands prix in South America, Europe and the Middle East, and the International Offshore Team Association are discussing the future of the championship this weekend, including issues such as new rules, engine sizes and the championship format. The two parties are looking at ways of trimming costs, making it more affordable for teams to compete and cities to host races in the wake of the global financial downturn.

The last two events of the season are in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in November and December, and they could decide the future of the sport as well as the championship. The Emiratis lit up a gloomy day on Italy's second-largest lake by piloting the Dubai catamaran Fazza - powered by twin V12 Victory engines - to the fastest time in practice on the eve of race one at the Italian Grand Prix. Bin Hendi and al Zafeen quickly established the best time of the day but with their rivals starting to close in on Fazza's fastest lap they took to the course for two flawless final laps in the last 15 minutes of the session to better their previous best by almost two seconds and strike the first psychological blow of the weekend.

Their time of 2mins 20.89secs (190.23kph) came just hours after championship officials rejected Fazza's appeal against a time penalty incurred in the previous race in Sweden - a result which leaves them 12 points behind European Championship leader Giovanni Carpitella with two races in Europe remaining. "We are not happy at all with the verdict from Sweden but we just have to accept it and move on," bin Hendi, the throttleman, said.

"It means we have to go all out for two wins this weekend. But even if Giovanni [Carpitella] gets two second-place finishes and wins the European title, two wins for us will still strengthen our place in the overall world championship." Carpitella is Fazza's biggest threat to winning the European crown, but the Italian - now throttling Negotiator alongside Britain's Chris Parsonage - will need to improve on his practice times if he is to take the title.

Making their racing debut together, Carpitella and Parsonage posted the fourth-fastest time of the day behind Fazza, Team Abu Dhabi's Rashed al Tayer and John Tomlinson of the US (2:22.60, 187.95kph) and the surprise third place of F1 legend Guido Cappellini and Marcello Menegatto in Primatist (2:23.56, 186.69kph). Fifth-best was the second Dubai boat, Skydive Dubai, crewed by Talib al Sayed and Abdullah al Mehairbi.

Seven of the eight-boat fleet took to the water yesterday for what was one of the closest sessions of the season. Although by the end of the 90 minutes bin Hendi and al Zafeen had set an advantage of just under two seconds, the next five boats were separated by less then three seconds after several laps of the 4.02km course. The times will not affect the starting order - the pole position will be determined before today's first race of the grand prix weekend.

Fazza's storming final two laps may well have given them a major boost in morale as they go hunting the first trophy of the Class 1 campaign.

* Agencies