Lumina CSV Championship Day 1 in Dubai
Lumina CSV Championship Day 1 in Dubai
Dubai, 10th January 2008:The third of six events in this year’s Lumina CSV
Championship Middle East season got underway today with a torrent of on-track
action. Bahrain’s championship leader Fahad Al Musalam maintained a strong
presence in the thick of the action, while the fireworks were provided by his
racing rivals Abdulaziz Al Yaeesh from Saudi Arabia, Bahraini youngster Raed
Raffii and Australia’s Tarek Elgammal.
The action got underway early on a busy schedule for the Luminas with Free
Practice putting the four fastest men in the field head and shoulders above the
rest. Making his habitual early run to the top of the timesheets was defending
champion Elgammal who clocked 2m 32.0s to be followed by the top two men in this
year’s points standings, Al Yaeesh and Al Musalam, with teenage sensation Raffii
setting the fourth fastest time.
Already this quartet was four seconds per lap faster than anyone else in the
field, then Al Yaeesh upped the ante with a 2m 31.2s lap of the 5.39km ‘Grand
Prix’ circuit in Dubai that spurred Elgammal on to log a resounding 2m 29.896s.
Raffii then leapfrogged both Al Yaeesh and Al Musalam to go second fastest on 2m
30.415s as the rest of the field began to edge towards the leading pace, getting
into the 2m 33s bracket.
This set the scene for a thrilling pole position battle in official qualifying.
Yet again it was Elgammal whose early session pace proved too much for his
rivals to match, claiming the honours with a blistering 2m 27.904s lap at his
first attempt that was never bettered. Al Yaeesh was next up on a 2m28.724s that
was again almost a second clear of the two Bahraini drivers, championship leader
Al Musalam and young Raffii who were separated by just 0.021seconds at the end
of the session.
With dusk falling and headlights blazing the fifteen Luminas launched off the
line into the first of their two races this weekend and Al Yaeesh capitalized on
a slow start from Elgammal to take the early lead. However Elgammal, desperate
to haul in the points deficit to the leading group, was not to be denied victory
and surged past the Saudi ace on the last lap, with championship leader Al
Musalam banking more valuable points in third place just ahead of Raffii.
“I actually thought I got quite a good start but Abdulaziz clearly got a better
one,” Elgammal said. “He got alongside off the line and I didn’t want to put him
in the wall, he did a good job and Fahad was all over the pair of us. I caught
up to him again after a few laps then seemed to get a vibration, when that cured
itself I went after him with the headlights on full beam and fortunately he made
a slight mistake on the last lap that I was able to make the most of. I really
wanted to put on a good show at home in Dubai in what is a great series with
some seriously talented drivers.”
Al Yaeesh coped well with his disappointment at losing out almost within sight
of the line. “I missed the shift into third gear and trying to sort that out the
car got sideways. I was drifting and Tarek got alongside, and I thought I had
one more lap after that so I played safe and let him through. It was good close
racing between us though and I just want the same again tomorrow – with a
different result!”
A canny race from Al Musalam saw him take the decision to stay out of the battle
for the lead and focus on the overall championship battle. “Tarek was so fast
today and he knows this track like the back of his hand. He placed the car
perfectly to deny me any chance to get a run on him and overtake, then when he
caught Abdulaziz I held back a little as I thought something might happen but
unfortunately they kept it clean! These were very good points today though and
obviously I am thinking about the championship.”
The top quartet in the series finished well clear of the rest of the field,
where there were numerous exciting battles up and down the order. In the end it
was Egyptian racer Ahmed Hamada who led the pack in at the finish, with
race-long battles between Fahad Hizam and Raed Charawi for seventh place and
Christophe Mariot and Bandar Al Selmi for tenth place among the highlights.
The second of the weekend’s r aces will take place at 11.00 tomorrow morning,
with the top seven finishers starting the race in reverse order on the grid and
rain showers to be expected.
Results – Lumina CSV Championship Middle East Race 5 of 12
| 1 | Tarek Elgammal | 8 laps | 19m 55.935s |
| 2 | Abdulaziz Al Yaeesh | +0.683s | |
| 3 | Fahad Al Musalam | +2.124s | |
| 4 | Raed Raffii | +4.614s | |
| 5 | Ahmed Hamada | +11.965s | |
| 6 | Sh. Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa | +27.236s | |
| 7 | Fahad Hizam | +36.198s | |
| 8 | Raed Charawi | +37.656s | |
| 9 | Adel Shaji | +43.826s | |
| 10 | Christophe Mariot | +59.175s | |
| 11 | Bandar Al Selmi | +59.588s | |
| 12 | Husam Al Saleh | +1m 3.465s | |
| 13 | Fawaz Algosaibi | +1m 3.907s | |
| 14 | Helmut Fleischmann | +1m 4.665s | |
| 15 | Marwa Al Eifa | +2m 18.384s |
Fastest lap: Tarek Elgammal 2m 28.074s
