Date Added: 2008-05-24

Fourth position for Doha's Abdullah Al-Sulaiti in Qatar 95 IOTA reaches agreement with QMSF to support Qatar Orphan Foundation

BUDVA (Montenegro): His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and British throttleman Steve Curtis MBE will start Sunday's Hypo Group Montenegrin Grand Prix from a stunning pole position on the grid after Saturday afternoon's Edox Pole Position competition at the Adriatic coastal course of Budva in Montenegro.

Qatar 95 team mates Abdullah Al-Sulaiti and Matteo Nicolini qualified in fourth position behind the UAE's Mohammed Al-Marri and Nadir Bin Hendi in Victory 1 and the Norwegian Jotun boat. Eight boats took to the water for the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship's first visit to Budva, but it was a triumphant afternoon for the President of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation and the Qatar Team.

"This was reward for all the hard work put in by the Qatar Team over the last few weeks," said Sheikh Hassan. "We still have a difficult job to do in the race on Sunday, but it is very pleasing to be at the front of the field today."

It was obvious from the outset that Sheikh Hassan's and Steve Curtis's tweaks and improvements to the Skema V12-engined spare Qatar 96 hull had paid handsome dividends. In the early minutes of the qualifying session they were the class of the field with a stunning lap of 2m 19.78s.

No one could match the Qatar 96 duo and the Jotun crew of Norwegians Bjorge Jacobsen and Jorn Tandberg were their nearest rivals in 2m 24.46s.
Al-Sulaiti and Nicolini held third with a best tour of 2m 24.81s, with Dubai's Victory 1 in fourth with 2m 25.21s and Victory 7 in fifth with a time of 2m 28.53s.