 |
 |
» 779,- € |
  |
|
» 39,- € |
| |
|
» 20,50 € |
| |
|
» 9,90 € |
| |
|
» 159,90 € |
| |
|
|
|
“Spirit of Norway” win in Egypt
27.10.2007 |
|
Spirit of Norway’s Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis produced their second impressive performance of the weekend to win today’s Egyptian Grand Prix and keep their world title hopes alive, with Qatar 96, second and the championship leader’s, Victory 77 in third.
With the course shortened to 57.59Nm due to the extreme conditions, Spirit of Norway took full advantage of starting from pole position, hitting the front from the green flag and gradually building an impressive lead over their main rivals in the championship race, Qatar 96 and Victory77, and going on to take the chequered flag and win by 30 seconds. "It was pretty rough out there today but we had a very good run and this was the result we needed," said Gjelsten. "All weekend our set-up has been good and we knew we would be hard to beat in these conditions. Steve did another great job on the throttles, we were right on the buoys at each turn and we soon built a comfortable lead. The top four or five boats are all pretty similar in terms of performance, but today was more about the pilots than anything else. Now we have to go to the next race in Doha and do the same." |
|
|
| Qatar 96 produced another strong showing after qualifying second fastest on Friday, and second place for Sheikh Hassan and Matteo Nicolini achieved their main target of reducing the gap to the championship leader’s. "We made a good start and managed to get a good lead over Victory 77. Staying ahead was the goal but it is not easy when you are hitting waves and the boat is being thrown around at speed. Spirit had good acceleration and a good pace today, but our goal was to close the gap on Victory 77 which we have and now we can take the fight to Doha where we must finish well and hope that 77 is not on the podium." |
|
|
| |
|
|
| Third place for Victory 77 was a gutsy performance by Al Zafeen and Jean Marc Sanchez after throttleman Sanchez suffered a severe nose bleed at the start of the race and struggled throughout. "Right at the start we lost communications and then I had another nose bleed which didn’t stop," said an exhausted Sanchez. "All I could was to swallow the blood but this made me choke and I became very dehydrated. The last six laps were a nightmare. I am happy we could finish the race. It was tough out there." After producing their best showing in qualifying, Chris Parsonage and Bard Eker produced their best result of the season bringing Negotiator home in fourth place, ahead of an excellent result for Giampaolo Montavoci, who switched into his second boat after crashing in qualifying, to partner Kolbjorn Selmer. Jorn Tandberg and Christian Zaborowski completed the top six, but will be disappointed with the result after running strongly in fourth and pushing Victory 77 for most the race, before technical problems dropped them down the field. |
|
|
There was also disappointment also for Qatar 95, who after starting from sixth position, moved up to fourth and was closing in on third place when a broken supercharger belt ended their race. After running in fifth place, Spirit of Norway 20’s race ended when a water hose broke with SeveneleveN and Victory 7 also failing to finish due to technical problems.
The teams now head to Doha in two weeks time for the Qatar Grand Prix, and with 24 points separating the top three, the title race looks set to go down to the final two races in Dubai. |
 |
|
| |
Hyperlinks
»»
Autos für jeden Geldbeutel - hier finden!
|
|
|
|
