Intro:

Qatar's Alex Carella won his third successive world title in powerboating's F1 H2O championship on Friday with victory at the Sharjah Grand Prix in the United Arab Emirates.

Script:

The final race of powerboating's F1 H2O World Championship took place in the waters off Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, with four drivers still in with a chance of taking the title.

Alex Carella of the Qatar Team, the defending champion, but third in the points standings going into the Sharjah Grand Prix, was on pole after blowing away the opposition in Thursday's qualifying and the Qatari driver hit the front from the start.

Championship leader Sami Selio of Finland, who rolled his Mad-Croc Baba Racing Team craft in Thursday's qualifying, had to borrow a boat from team-mate Filip Roms, started the race from 13th position.

Carella made a superb start and surged into a clear lead.

His advantage was more than two seconds through lap two, as Selio moved up from 13th to eighth.

Carella's lead was 3.32 seconds at the halfway point and Torrente was running over two and a half seconds in front of Chiappe.

Selio maintained seventh, but was unable to make in-roads into Thani Al-Qamzi's hold on sixth place.

Then the Finn suffered a technical failure and was forced to retire on Lap 22 - his championship aspirations evaporated as a result.

Sweden's Jonas Andersson of Team Azerbaijan also withdrew soon after.

Back in the race, Chiappe managed to pass Torrente to take second place, but it was still a three-way battle.

The title pendulum swung decisively in Carella's favour.

The Italian held his nerve under some intense pressure from Chiappe to reach the chequered flag just 1.98 second ahead of the Frenchman, with Torrente coming in third, 26.64 seconds off the pace.

Carella took the Sharjah Grand Prix and with it a third successive world title.