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| CAPPELLINI TAKES 6TH POLE OF 2002 IN ABU DHABI! ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates: (19th December) – Newly crowned World Champion Guido Cappellini captured his 6th pole of the season and will the field of 24 drivers from 12 different nations in the 11th Annual Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi the 10th and final round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating. Cappellini, the 7-time World Champion, picked up his 48th career pole while setting the only time under 40 seconds by clocking a 39:49 second lap around the 1.7 kilometer 5 turn circuit in the inner harbour of the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The World Championship has been settled in this 21st season of F1 racing, but the battle for the runner-up spot continues heating up with both Saudi Laith Pharaon and Italian Massimo Roggiero tied with 69 points going into the final round and Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne just two points back with 67. The advantage in qualifying went to Dessertenne as he did a 40.59 second lap for a speed of 150.77 kph beating out Pharaon for 3rd with a 40.75 lap. Pharaon will hope that he can repeat what he did a week ago in Sharjah when he passed Dessertenne a third of the way into the race to finish 2nd to the native of La Rochelle. The big surprise was that Massimo Roggiero ran to only a 9th quickest time with a 43:17 second lap and will have to work hard and have some luck at the same time to get the 2nd place laurels. Another driver who is still in the mix for the runner-up spot in the championship is American Scott Gillman, lead driver of the Emirates Team who will start 4th with a speed of 149.56 kph and a time of 40.92 in his Abu Dhabi built hull. Gillman will need a lot of luck since he is 9 points behind both Roggiero and Pharaon going into the final round. Gillman won here in 1997 and is looking for his first race win since 2000. Italian Francesco Cantando will start 5th in his new hull that he built in Milan with a 41:03 second time and is looking for his 3rd straight win at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. Swedish driver Jari Honkala came on strong in late qualifying and will start 6th in his Mulgaard hull with a time of 41:14. Great Britian’s Andy Elliott had his 2nd best qualifying effort of the season with a 7th quick time doing a 42:74 second lap in his KRB hulled boat from New Zealand. Starting in the 8th position will be Italian Fabio Comparato disappointed with his first time all season outside the top-6 with a speed of 142:32 kph in his DAC hull. Roggiero is 9th while rounding out the top 10 will be Dane Gert Ladefoged with a lap time of 43:72 seconds. Others in the top 15 are 11th Duarte Benavente of Portugal, 12th is Michael Weckstrom of Finland, 13th is Fabrizio Bocca and the highest placed newcomer is Jay Price from New Orleans in the USA in 14th. The other Emirates drivers are Thani Al Qamzi who will start 15th and Majeed Al Mansouri who will start 20th. Twenty-four drivers from 12 different nations will take to inner harbour as we wrap up the 2002 campaign with a 15:00 local time 11:00 GMT and 6:00 Eastern Standard Time in North America. The Awards Banquet will be held at 20:00 local time following the event. Email: floridahotshot@aol.com |
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