ABU DHABI: Competitors took advantage of their first opportunity to take to the waters of the Arabian Gulf on Wednesday afternoon in a free practice session for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, the penultimate round of the 2017 UIM F1 H2O World Championship.

The hosts Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) has three boats in the 21-hull line-up and series leader Alex Carella and Rashed Thani Al Qemzi ran for 10, 14 and five laps, respectively, at the start of the 90-minute practice stint. They were classified in seventh, ninth and 11th positions.

Carella’s rivals know that they must stop the Italian from winning on Friday afternoon’s race to deprive him of a fourth world title and Team Sweden’s Erik Stark and Victory Team’s Ahmed Al Hameli, together with their respective team-mates Jonas Andersson and Shaun Torrente, showed their determination with impressive practice times in ideal racing conditions.

Triple World Champion Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC Shenzhen China Team won the session with a best lap of 43.75sec during his 25 laps on the water. Torrente and Stark were second and third.

Rookies Erik Edin and Matthew Palfreyman enjoyed their first F1 experience and ran for 16 laps each, the Swede carding a best time of 47.70sec in his Team Sweden DAC. Palfreyman clocked a best tour of 48.17sec in his British-built Dragon after heading out on to the water mid-way through the session and then pitting after two laps with a minor steering issue.

Double World Champion Sami Selio and team-mate Filip Roms were last on to the water for a brief test after a late scrutineering slot, but Poland’s Bartek Marszalak deliberately missed out on the session.