COMPARATO GRABS POLE IN HELSINKI!
CAPPELLINI AND COMPARATO MAKE IT 3 ITALIANS IN TOP 3!

HELSINKI, Finland:  (15th of June 2002) – Fabio Comparato continues to show he's taking the 2002 campaign seriously for his first title run as he grabbed his first pole position in two seasons and will lead the field of 22 drivers from 11 different countries for the 2nd Annual Grand Prix of Finland, the 3rd stop of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating.

Comparato, who had a serious crash at the end of 2000 and took almost a year to get back into his groove as a fast driver, took the pole with a 38.06 second lap and a speed of 174.40 kilometers per hour. It was his first pole since the Hungarian Grand Prix in 1999 and the 2nd in his career. His new DAC hull powered by a strong Mercury 2.5 litre engine set a lap .16 seconds quicker than ex-teammate and current World Champion Guido Cappellini.

The 43 year-old native of Como, Italy was pushing hard for his 2nd straight pole, but for Cappellini, it didn't happen on his 2nd flying lap of his 2 lap shootout solo challenge for pole position. His 173.31 kph speed is 2nd best on this 1.8 kilometer 6 pin course.

The 3rd Italian in the top 3 will be Francesco Cantando of Milan, who was .94 of a second off the pace and will be looking to do better than a 7th place finish in his first two events of the season. Cantando, who like Comparato has also led each event this season, is looking for his 8th career win.

Starting 4th and his best qualifying effort in the last few years will be English driver Andy Elliott who is running the new Kiwi based hull from New Zealand. Elliott carried the exact same time as his teammate Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne with a time of 39.76 and a speed of 166.59 kph for 5th off the grid and a good starting spot for a driver better known for racing stronger than his qualifying.

The hard luck driver of the day when to American Scott Gillman who was 2nd quickest to Cappellini going into the “shootout” only to have his boat fail to start on the start pontoon sending the unhappy Colorado native fuming back to his hotel. He will start 6th with a time of 40.37 and a speed of 160.38 kph.

Massimo Roggiero of Italy just missed his first top 6 of the season starting 7th on Sunday with a time of 41.30 and equaled by Swedish driver Jari Honkala who improved all day and moved up to 8th late in the 2nd timed session.

Awad Al Qubaisi of Abu Dhabi will start 9th with a 41.69 second tour and Helsinki native Pertti Leppala coming back into a boat for the first time since he last raced and won in Vienna in 2000, was 10th with a 41.74 while his ex-teammate and Finish native Sami Selio will be in the 11th position with a 41.85 second lap and a speed of 158.27 kph.

Sunday's 2nd Annual Grand Prix of Finland will start at 14:30 local time, 11:30 GMT and 7:30 am Eastern Daylight Time in North America.