The Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will still be an “exciting event” even if Lewis Hamilton arrives in November with the Formula One drivers’ championship already sewn up, says the chief executive of Yas Marina Circuit.
Hamilton stretched his lead over closest rival Sebastian Vettel to 50 points with victory at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, leaving the Ferrari man with an uphill task to reel in the Mercedes-GP driver with only four races remaining before the season finale in the UAE.
But Al Tareq Al Ameri, YMC chief executive, believes the 10th staging of the grand prix on November 25 will not be one to miss, even if Hamilton has already sealed a fifth world title.
“It has been an exciting season and we are still going to have an exciting race,” the Emirati said on Tuesday at the launch of YMC’s 2018-19 calendar.
“We have seen lots of good racing this year. There are two teams fighting at the front, which three or four years ago we did not have when the leading cars were spread out at the front, so I think it will deliver in Abu Dhabi.”
Of the Hamilton v Vettel duel at the front, he added: “Sometimes that is the nature of racing, that it can go one way rather than another at a certain point of the season and one driver is gaining more momentum than another one, and that is what we have seen in the recent races.”
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Al Ameri added that ticket sales for the Abu Dhabi GP "are great", with an extra batch recently released for the standing area on Abu Dhabi Hill quickly snapped up.
"They [ticket sales] are higher than they were at this stage last year and we did accommodate an additional request to make available 1,000 tickets for Abu Dhabi Hill, and they have already been sold out," he said.
“So everything is moving in the right direction and momentum is good and it is shaping up to be one of the best year’s hosting.”
A new addition to the YMC calendar this season will be the FIA World Rallycross Championship on April 5-6, the first time Rallycross has been held at the capital's track.
“This international event will help to build on the UAE’s already strong heritage of competing in major motorsports events and hosting championship races as well as inspiring a new generation of talented racing stars to compete at the highest level,” said Mohammed ben Sulayem, president of the Automobile and Touring Club UAE.
Other motorsport events include the TRD 86 Cup and the Gulf 12 Hours endurance race, while Yas Marina Circuit will again host the ITU World Triathlon Abu Dhabi on March 8-9.
The%20specs
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Champions parade (UAE timings)
7pm Gates open
8pm Deansgate stage showing starts
9pm Parade starts at Manchester Cathedral
9.45pm Parade ends at Peter Street
10pm City players on stage
11pm event ends
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Company%20profile
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Company%20Profile
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RESULTS
6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1.600m
Winner: Miller’s House, Richard Mullen (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Kanood, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Gervais, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Important Mission, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.50pm: The Entisar Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Firnas, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.
9.25pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Zhou Storm, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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BACK%20TO%20ALEXANDRIA
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LIKELY TEAMS
South Africa
Faf du Plessis (captain), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi.
India (from)
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
THE NEW BATCH'S FOCUS SECTORS
AiFlux – renewables, oil and gas
DevisionX – manufacturing
Event Gates – security and manufacturing
Farmdar – agriculture
Farmin – smart cities
Greener Crop – agriculture
Ipera.ai – space digitisation
Lune Technologies – fibre-optics
Monak – delivery
NutzenTech – environment
Nybl – machine learning
Occicor – shelf management
Olymon Solutions – smart automation
Pivony – user-generated data
PowerDev – energy big data
Sav – finance
Searover – renewables
Swftbox – delivery
Trade Capital Partners – FinTech
Valorafutbol – sports and entertainment
Workfam – employee engagement
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
DUBAI%20BLING%3A%20EPISODE%201
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