LEPPALA LAPS UP LASERLINE MAGIC!
GILLMAN AND CANTADO IN TOP 3 IN VIENNA!

VIENNA, AUSTRIA (9th September) - Finland's Pertti Leppala, having not gotten in a race boat since last December, captured pole position as a "guest driver" for Guido Cappellini in the Laserline/Castrol DAC/Mercury 2.5 litre powered boat and will lead the field of 19 in the Grand Prix of Austria, the 10th Round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating tomorrow afternoon on the Danube river.

Leppala, who picked up his first pole since Chalon, France in 1998, has spent all season away from boat racing and concentrating on his salon car racing career in the Finnish national series. Leppala, spent most of the morning session getting back into "ship shape" running over 30 laps in the morning practice session. The native of Helsinki, Finland who has finished runner-up in the World Championship twice in the last 5 years, did a 42.41 second lap and a speed of 157.38 kph around the 7-pin 2 kilometer course.

The man everyone thought could get pole position, who had recorded 3 already this season was American Scott Gillman in the Adnoc Lubes/National Bank of Abu Dhabi DAC/Mercury 2.5 litre powered machine who had been sitting atop the time sheets since the first session with a 45.20 time. Gillman, who is 2nd in the championship and trying to take advantage of Championship points leader Guido Cappellini who is sitting out on a 2 race ban, put together a quick time of 42.84 on his 2nd of two laps in the shootout to take 2nd place with a speed of 155.46 kph.

Young Italian Francesco Cantando in the Singha Beer DAC/Mercury 2.5 litre boat did a 3rd quickest time of 43.39 for a speed of 153.49 kph. Cantando, who is right in the middle of the title hunt with 89 points, did well dispite having a terrible start to the day with his rear transom breaking loose and having to be quickly patched for the 2nd straight time this season.

Italian veteran Massimo Roggiero was 4th quickest with a lap of 44.38 and 150.67 kph in his Petrobras DAC/Mercury 2.5 litre boat. Roggiero, who came in 2.03 behind Gillman in the 2nd session, ran to the front only to be beaten later in the top 6 by the three others in front.

Second in the World Championship and 5th off the dock will be Cappellini's teammate Fabio Comparato who did a 44.54 time, dropping two places in the shootout with a speed of 149.52 kph in the Laserline/Castrol DAC/Mercury 2.5 machine.

Hungarian star Rudy Mihaldinecz was 6th in his ex-Jonathan Jones 3 year old Seebold wooden boat with a time of 45.76 and a speed of 145.54 kph in the Waircom/Dunaferr/Ema machine.

In 7th place was France's Phillipe Dessertenne in the Fuchs/Eurobet DAC/OMC 3.0 litre machine with a time of 47.68. Next was Duarte Benavente of Portugal driving the DAC for the first time in his career while his Burgess hull is fixed, doing well in 8th place with a 48.28 time. Ninth quick was Victor Kunitch of Latvia in the Kalnciems Racing DAC/Mercury with a time of 48.34. And rounding out the top 10 was Finland's Sami Selio with a speed of 137.94 kph and a time of 48.44 seconds in rougher water conditions in the 2nd session.

Tomorrow's Grand Prix of Austria will be the 10th round of the 2000 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating as 19 drivers from 11 different coutries will battle starting at 14:00 local CET and 8:00 Eastern Daylight Time in North America.

The race can be seen on European and Asian Broadcast Union as well as worldwide on the live web streaming on the internet by going to www.f1boat.com and following the directions to watch the event.