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UIM F2 – Quotes and images from Ribadouro

Chris Davies on 8th October 2017

Duarte Benavente was the local hero taking the win in Ribadouro, however Rashed Al Qemzi became the first ever Emirati to win the UIM World F2 title.

A proud Team Abu Dhabi Principal Guido Cappellini commented on the success:

I couldn’t imagine that in such a short time the team would win the UIM F2 World Championship title.
The project we started was to win the title in four years and today we have done it in two.


His driver Al Qemzi (above), the new World Champion told me after:

This is a special day for me and everyone within Team Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club.
This title is for everyone who has supported me and to the whole team for all their efforts this season.
I knew what I had to do.
Losing Q3 because of the wind did not help at all, but I managed my race well and we have been rewarded with the World Championship.

Taking second place in both today’s Grand Prix and the World Championship overall was Pierre Lundin (top photo) and he said after the podium celebrations had died down:

That was a real fun race to finish off with!
Benavente did a really good job today, plus he’s way too experienced to loose a race from that position.

Equally complimentary was the race victor, Duarte Benavente (above):

It was a real pleasure to race hard against all of these guys, there are no slow ones out there but they all race fair and as soon as they saw me in the mirrors they made it really easy for me to stay ahead of Lundin.
If anyone asks how you do well in powerboat racing, then the secret to success is to enjoy yourself.

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