The XCAT Shanghai Grand Prix Pole Position qualifying was postponed until Saturday morning because of a delay in the arrival to China by a UIM technical official due to a visa issue.

The Organising Committee subsequently made the postponement announcement after a meeting with the teams.

However, 2 practice sessions were completed today, Team Abu Dhabi dominated the second official session, after the Blue Roo’s Pål-Virik Nilsen and Jan Trygve Braaten had carded the best lap of 2min 11.269sec during their 11 laps on the water in the first session.

Shaun Torrente and Faleh Al-Mansoori

Shaun Torrente and Faleh Al-Mansoori were up to speed from the outset and the Team Abu Dhabi 4 crew clocked the second fastest time of 2min 13.130sec to slow into second with 222 Offshore’s Giovanni Carpitella and Joakhim Kumlin in third.

Dubai Police and Team Abu Dhabi 5 finished the opening session in fourth and fifth of the 12 boats.

Rashed Al-Tayer and Majed Al-Mansoori

But Team Abu Dhabi was not to be denied in the second practice session and Torrente and Al-Mansoori topped the times with a run of 2min 13.115sec to beat their team-mates Rashed Al-Tayer and Majed Al-Mansoori by 1.159 seconds after running just five laps in the session.

The Blue Roo rounded off the top three, while the series leading Dubai Police crew of Arif Saif Al-Zafeen and Nadir bin Hendi were a subdued fourth.