Round 2 – German Grand Prix – Travemunde – Pole Position
HYATT FOILS ALL-VICTORY PODIUM
* Dubai-based Victory Team stake ominous claim to inaugural German GP *
Saeed Al Tayer and Felix Serralles powered to their second
consecutive Pole Position win of the season today, setting a blisteringly fast time of
13.187 seconds at an average speed of 245.70km/h over a measured kilometer ahead of
tomorrow’s inaugural German Grand Prix at Travemunde, north of Hamburg.
In front of tens of thousands of spectators and a flotilla of spectator craft numbering many hundreds, the Victory Team might have scored an ominous 1-2-3 had it not been for Edoardo Polli and Laith Pharaon in Hyatt splitting the pack with a 13.459 run at an average speed of 240.73km/h
In snatching second place from Victory 7
(13.532 seconds) Pharaon and Polli - the holder of the most Pole Position wins, appeared
to be the only team with the speed to challenge the current Arab dominance of the series
"To be fair on the other teams, we were very lucky to run when we did," said a modest Felix Serralles in Travemunde, one of the busiest ferry ports in Europe. "The boats immediately before us had to contend with a big wake from a ship and it could have made all the difference to the times," added the gracious 40 year-old Puerto Rican born throttleman.
"We broke one of the new lighter, supposedly stronger propellers in the test this morning, so we were forced to run a larger blade than we would have wished. Because of the short run up to the start, we had to run at 8,200prm in 3rd gear all the way to compensate, but it obviously worked a treat," continued Serralles.
"It’s going to be a very fast race, that’s for sure," commented Laith Pharaon, the throttleman for second placed Hyatt. "Obviously, we are very pleased with the result, but the important thing for us is that the boat and the new gear box was reliable," added the 30 year-old, London born Saudi Arabian.
Ali Nasser and Randy Scism in Victory 7 were also enthusiastic about third place, particularly as the team was running engine modifications on the four year-old boat.
"We hit the ferry wake on our first run when we were really
motoring, but thankfully our second run was even faster," said 43 year-old Scism from
Ohio. "It’s encouraging that we can score a podium place with a four year-old
boat, but I’m still really looking forward to testing the new boat in Norway next
week," he added.
Team mates, Mohamed Al Ghaith and Khalfan Harib in Victory 4, were narrowly forced out of the top three with their time of 13.636 seconds over the kilometer, just 0.15 seconds shy of that set by Victory 7.
Meanwhile, Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis in Spirit of Norway, failed to match the second place they scored in Savona, but managed to snatch fifth place despite complaining of a recurring loss of air pressure in gear selection, which forced them to abort their first run. "We managed to select fourth gear for the second run and took as long a run up as we could, but it just wasn’t enough to reach a decent speed," commented Gjelsten afterwards.
Less fortunate was the Norwegian pairing of Andreas Ugland and Jann Hillestad in Jotun, which pulled up on its second run with an intermittent electronic failure. There was also disappointment for Ken Thorne and Matteo Nicolini who had to abort their second run following a problem with the turbo charger.