11:52 PM Wed 28 Oct 2009 GMT
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'Reigning World Champion Colin Jelf racing along side his brother Owen Jelf - UIM F2 World Championship'
UIM F2 World Championship
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Reigning World Champion Colin Jelf who is attempting to retain his F2 World Championship Crown for the 4th consecutive year has had one weekend to forget in the first event of the five part Formula 2 World Championship held in Bahrain over the 15th & 16th of October.
Colin Jelf set the quickest time in the 1st qualifying on Friday afternoon. Colin entered the second qualifying session on Saturday knowing that he was in the box seat for pole position for the grand prix. He had also set the fastest lap of the weekend which would end up being nearly two seconds quicker than anyone else. So as the 45 minute session began confidence was high with Owen placed provisionally fourth on the grid.
After a first attempt seeing Colin set a lap time of 49.75. Colin then decided to attempt another 'flying lap', but disaster struck as he approached the last turn Paul Shepard of South Africa was approaching the same turn on a wider line but suddenly turned across straight in front of Colin this resulted in Colin barrel rolling over Shepard's boat luckily landing the right way up.
Colin and the boat were fine and thanks to hard work from the team the boat was patched up and back on the water by the end of the session. However during this time Colin's strongest rival Alex Carella of Italy had claimed pole with Colin finishing up in second and Owen dropped into fourth.
Further misfortune hampered the reigning World champion as the lights went out for the start of the race neither of the two brothers fired up. Starting late as their boats passed timing for the first time they were both sitting at the back of the fleet and nearly half a lap behind the leading boat. Colin reported trouble accelerating out of turns and several laps later was in a unique position and was being caught by the leaders, an incident amongst the fleet seeing 2 of the turn buoys destroyed saw Colin's chances of making up positions hampered as the race continued under yellow flag.
Owen Jelf finished 10th and Colin 13th results both brothers will be disappointed by but it wont phase them and they will both come out in true championship fighting spirit at the next round in Egypt at the resort of Port Ghalib next week on the 7th and 8th of November.
by RYA/Nicola Drummond
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Macquarie Island, TAS
