Many of the thousands of spectators that had lined the banks of the Douro River yesterday, had hoped to see their local hero Duarte Benavente finish with his third podium place in three years and he didn’t disappoint!

Benavente took a well deserved second place in the UIM F2 Grand Prix of Portugal, and he told me after the race:

I’m quite happy with second.

Starting from eighth on the grid didn’t help my chances of securing a win, but then my boat is not designed with Q3 in mind.

I hate the way the ‘Shoot-Out’ works because we don’t race by ourselves so why should we qualify that way?

A while ago I was able to fight for the pole position but not with this boat anymore.

Maybe I will have something that will surprise a few people in Abu Dhabi.

When I asked Benaventes’ French boat builder David Moore to comment, he wasn’t letting on and simply replied:

Perhaps a new haircut!

2019 UIM F2 World Championship (after 4 Rounds)

1st) Rashed Al Qemzi 75 points
2nd) Duarte Benavente 38 points
3rd) Ola Pettersson 34 points
4th) Ferdinand Zandbergen 34 points
5th) Stefan Hagin 20 points
6th) Daniel Segenmark 20 points
7th) Bimba Sjöholm 12 points
8th) Tobias Munthe-Kaas 11 points
9th) Edgaras Riabko 10 points
10th)Brent Dillard 9 points
11th)Owen Jelf 9 points
12th)Mette Bjerknæs 8 points
13th)Rashed Al Tayer 7 points
14th)Héctor Sanz 5 points
15th)Oskar Samuelsson 4 points
16th)Ahmad Al Fahim 4 points
17th)Kalle Viippo 3 points
18th)Konstantin Ustinov 3 Points
19th)Johan Österberg 2 points
20th)Mansoor Al Mansoori 2 points
21st)Nikita Lijcs 1 point
22nd)Steve Hoult 1 point

2019 UIM F2 Grand Prix of Portugal - Results