KAZAN, RUSSIA // Scott Gillman rolled back the years on his return to the water with a solid fourth for Team Abu Dhabi at the Grand Prix of Russia, while Emirati pilot Thani Al Qamzi maintains his championship push with a second-place finish.
On the Nizhny Kaban Lake course in Kazan for the third round of the UIM F1 H20 World Championship, Al Qamzi was unable to stop Qatar's Alex Carella taking a start-to-finish victory in a highly-charged grand prix which saw two yellow flag incidents in the 40-lap race.
Jay Price, the series leader, managed to edge past Gillman in the closing stages to snatch the final podium place and retain his championship lead.
The veteran Team Abu Dhabi general manager was more than delighted with his performance after returning to the top flight of the sport for the first time in four years to replace the suspended Ahmed Al Hameli.
Al Qamzi and Gillman surged into third and fourth from the start behind Carella and Shaun Torrente through Lap One and maintained their positions after four laps.
Jonas Andersson forced a yellow flag on Lap 8 and the Team Abu Dhabi duo retained third and fourth overall.
Al Qamzi then managed to pass Torrente and snatch second place at the restart on Lap 11, while Gillman retained fourth before catching and passing Torrente on Lap 18.
The Team Abu Dhabi duo were safely in the two podium positions behind Carella heading into the final 15 laps before Torrente flipped his boat out of the race and forced a yellow flag with 14 laps remaining.
Action resumed with nine laps remaining, Gillman held station until the next lap when Price managed to edge through into third.
The Team Qatar pilot heaped pressure on Al Qamzi for the remaining five laps but the Emirati held on for 15 valuable championship points to keep him third in the rankings on 31 points — 20 behind leader Price.
