BRINDISI, Italy: Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al-Qemzi started the defense of his UIM F2 World Championship with sixth position at the Grand Prix of Italy in Brindisi on Sunday evening.
The opening round of the series was interrupted by three yellow flag stoppages, and the disjointed nature of the racing did nothing for Al-Qemzi’s chances of climbing through the field after a disappointing qualifying session. Al-Qemzi’s Emirati teammate Mansoor Al-Mansoori was forced to retire with technical issues after eight laps.
Victory fell to Briton Matt Palfreyman, who made a spectacular return to the sport following several years away from the driving seat. Lithuanian Edgaras Riabko and Portuguese veteran Duarte Benavente rounded off the podium places after Italian Tullio Abbate was later disqualified from second place for a racing infringement.
Al-Qemzi and Al-Mansoori lined up in ninth and 10th positions on the pontoon for the start of the 38-lap race with Abbate holding pole from his nephew Giacomo Sacchi and Palfreyman.
Al-Qemzi moved up to eighth on the run out to the first turn buoy, but Al-Mansoori slipped to 12th as Palfreyman moved into an early lead from Sacchi and Abbate. The leading group then held station through several laps as Palfreyman began to edge away from his closest two Italian pursuers and Al-Mansoori slipped behind Peter Zak and into 13th before withdrawing from the race after eight laps with technical issues.
Al-Qemzi was entrenched in eighth behind David Del Pin and was not able to pass on the narrow course where waves rebounding off the harbor walls made conditions even more difficult. The race was yellow-flagged on lap 12 after an accident and resumed seven laps later with Al-Qemzi retaining eighth position.
Palfreyman retained his slender advantage over Sacchi and Abbate at the front of the field until the race was yellow-flagged for a second time three laps later. The top three held station at the restart in increasingly choppy conditions, but Al-Qemzi slipped a place to ninth only for racing to be halted for a third time when Sacchi flipped his boat out of second place, Abbate and Duarte Benavente climbed into the podium positions and Al-Qemzi regained eighth.
Only four laps remained after a third restart, and Palfreyman held on to snatch the win from Abbate and Riabko with Al-Qemzi starting his F2 campaign with points for sixth after moving up a place on the last couple of laps and then benefitting from Abbate’s later disqualification.
Seventeen of the 18 drivers took part in the morning’s warm-up session with Al-Qemzi and Al-Mansoori running for 19 and 12 laps, respectively. Riabko topped the timed with a lap of 42.585 seconds.
Action in the UIM F2 World Championship resumes with the Grand Prix of Norway in Tonsberg Aug. 2-4.
