Victory 3’s Arif Saif Al-Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi claimed a second successive victory at the three-race UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship on the Abu Dhabi Breakwater on Thursday afternoon.

Team Abu Dhabi 6’s John Tomlinson and Gary Ballough now face an uphill battle to successfully defend the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club’s (ADIMSC) world title in the final race on Friday afternoon.

Victory 3 led from pole and pulled away from their arch rivals in a processional 13-lap race to claim maximum points, as Al-Fursan (the UAE equivalent to the British Red Arrows aerobatics team) flew a spectacular high-speed display overhead.

Team Abu Dhabi 6 finished a comfortable second and Zabo 91’s crew of Italy’s Giovanni Carpitella and England’s Ian Blacker rounded off the podium places.

Aquasport 99’s Nico Huybens and Daniel Cramphorn lined up in fourth at the start and began to drop back until they hit trouble after eight laps and took on water at the rear of the field.

The plan had been to run Team Abu Dhabi 5 for Rashed Al-Tayer and Majed Al-Mansoori in Class 1, but an engine would not run properly after the accident on Wednesday and the team ran out of time trying to get the boat to the pontoon on time.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Race 2

Victory 3 headed Team Abu Dhabi 6 into the second race that was fought out over 30 minutes plus one additional lap.

Victory 3 managed to hold the main race line into the first turn buoy and reached the end of the start lap with a lead of 11.1 seconds.

Victory 3 came in short for lap two, as Team Au Dhabi 6 stayed on the longer course and the gap widened to 40 seconds with Team Abu Dhabi 6 re-passing Zabo 91 along the grandstand straight.

Both boats ran short third laps and the different was 39 seconds, with Zabo 91 going long and falling well behind the home team.

The procession continued through laps seven and eight and Victory 3 began lap nine with a lead of 37.82 seconds and began to move into position to lap Aquasport 99.

There was no stopping Victory 3, however, and the Dubai crew crossed the finish line after 13 laps in a time of 34min 08.75sec to record victory over Team Abu Dhabi 6 by the margin of 40.58 seconds.

2016 UIM Class 1 World Championship – Race 2 result (Thursday):

1. Victory 3 – Arif Saif Al-Zafeen (UAE)/Nadir Bin Hendi (UAE) – 34min 08.75sec

2. Team Abu Dhabi 6 – John Tomlinson (USA)/Gary Ballough (USA) – @ 40.58sec

3. Zabo 91 – Giovanni Carpitella (ITA)/Ian Blacker (GBR) – @ 1min 58.15sec

4. Aquasport 99 – Nick Huybens (BEL)/Daniel Cramphorn (GBR) – L2