Team Chaudron, crewed by Aaron Ciantar and Dominique Martini, sealed the UIM V1 World Championship title yesterday after following up their race one win with fourth place in the second race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Ciantar and Frenchman Martini encountered problems during yesterday’s second race but they had effectively wrapped up the championship in Thursday’s opening race after cruising home untroubled and unchallenged in Chaudron with a lap to spare.
Their persistence in race two was rewarded as fourth place was enough for Chaudron to cement top spot in Class VI.
Team Chaudron, who also won the Pole Position Championship, finished with a total of 76 points, 10 ahead of Tommy One, as Ciantar captured his fourth world title.
Team Chaudron now have six world championshps to their name.
Not for the first time this season, the V1 teams served up some great racing, with the lead changing hands and the race for the podium places hotly contested.
After a somewhat fraught day for Bernico-New Star’s four-man squad on Thursday, disqualified from both qualifying and race one, Nico Bertels and Frank Hemelaer bounced back in style to take a well-deserved win.
Champions-elect Chaudron got the jump on pole-sitters Aquasport and led from the start with Bernico-New Star giving chase and keeping the gap to under eight seconds.
On lap five, Bernico-New Star surged ahead, pulling away from Chaudron to take their second win of the year.
Behind the leaders, Aquasport, Karelpiu and Tommy One were involved in a tight battle; first Aquasport held the upperhand, then Karelpiu seized the advantage until lap 5, the two trading places again before Daniel Cramphorn and Nico Huybens hit trouble and dropped back, eventually finishing in fifth.
With Chaudron slowing to a crawl and limping home in fourth, the remaining podium positions went to Karelpiu’s Antonio Schiano and Federico Montanari and Tommy One’s Stefano Bonanno and Maurizio Schepici.
It was a frustrating afternoon for Hercules Sagemann’s Andreas Podolsky and Udo Gross who struggled with technical problems, completing just five laps.
In Class 1, Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir Bin Hendi delivered another racing masterclass to win race two of the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi and claim Victory Team’s 14th world title.
VI standings
1. Chaudron 76; 2. Tommy One 66; 3. Aquasport 65; 4. Karelpiu 54; 5. Bernico-New Star 49; 6. Silverline 39; 7. Hercules Sagemann 21; 8. Bernico-New Star (2) 11.