Tuesday, 21 May: Sharjah Team is on its way to their base in Lisbon after a bitterly disappointing weekend at the UIM F1H2O Grand Prix of Portugal in Portimao, with Sami Seliö picking up a solitary point in tenth and teammate Filip Roms retiring on lap 31 of 48.The team will regroup and gets its first real opportunity of the year to de-rig and re-rig the boats as it prepares for round 3, The Grand Prix of France in Evian on 5-7 July.
After a solid start to the weekend and promising early showing in qualifying the weekend failed to deliver to meet Seliö’s and the team’s expectations. “It was a really disappointing and frustrating weekend for us,” said Sami Seliö. “The only light at the end of the tunnel was being quickest in Q1 which showed we had the pace when everything comes together and that we are very competitive. Q2 I was unlucky with trying to find space to get a clear lap, then the Stark crash which took away the time and of course my mistake ploughing into the buoy and running out of time before I could get another lap in. That meant starting from 11th off the dock.
“I got a very good start and had made up places but the first corner was the usual mess with others not maintaining their lanes and coming across. I got squeezed, completely sprayed down so I couldn’t see, had to back off and after making up places dropped more. But I manged to get back to finish tenth and get a point, it was not what we came for and with Filip retiring, overall not the weekend we wanted.
“Now we head to Lisbon to work on all the boats. I have a new boat ready, maybe we should have run it here, but we work to be ready to fight in Evian.”
A Thrilling Grand Prix of Portugal was won by Team Abu Dhabi’s Shaun Torrente who held off a fierce challenge from teammate Thani Al Qemzi, with the final podium slot going Team Amaravati’s Jonas Andersson.