DESSERTENNE CAPTURES FIRST F1 WIN IN HELSINKI!
CAPPELLINI , LEPPALA, GILLMAN & KOURTSENOVSKY CRASH OUT

HELSINKI, Finland:  (16th of June 2002) – French driver Philippe Dessertenne ended 8 years of frustration by picking up his first ever U.I.M. F1 World Championship victory at the 2nd Annual Grand Prix of Finland in front of 50,000 race fans around the cities inner harbour.

Dessertenne, who started from the 5th starting position, had a great start and moved up into 3rd off the start in a battle with his teammate England's Andy Elliott who had started 4th and was running strongly with his new KRB chassis from New Zealand, looking perfectly balanced for the first time this season and running strong.

Current World Champion Guido Cappellini, winner of the season's first two events, took the lead from the start and held it until the 28th tour when he and Russian driver Stanislov Kourtsenovsky got tied up going into turn 2 after the long straight. The native of Como, was ahead by 3 seconds at the time but caught up behind Vincenzo Polli and in the spray couldn't see the boat of Koursenovsky to his right and went over the top of the Russian barrell rolling spectacularly coming to an end. Both drivers were wet, but thankfully without injuries.

Cappellini wasn't the only one caught up in the series of mishaps on the afternoon as the duo of American Scott Gillman and local promoter and Helsinki native Pertti Lepppala were fighting for 5th when they got together in turn four and barrell rolled together. It almost got worst for Gillman as he was exiting his craft when in the pack of  boats Jari Honkala saw Gillman at the last second and just missed the driver as he was getting out of his boat. Honkala went over a sponson but didn't do major damage to either his boat or Gillman's. Both went out of the race with no points after running well.

Pole sitter and pilot looking for his first ever win was Italian Fabio Comparato who went out early on lap two with piston problems and was devistated by his chances to run for victory after covering the field in qualifying. With no points, Comparato drops from 2nd to 3rd in the points chase with 24.

Local driver Sami Selio, 4th in the championship coming into the event, had a frustrating day in front of his fans with a short race dropping out on the 14th lap in his DAC Johnson powered 3 litre engine. His boat was the only one not powered by the Mercury 2.5 litre powerplant.

Emirates driver Awad Al Qubaisi who moved into 2nd place at one time after charging up from mid pack dropped out with a mechanical problem on the 35th lap ending his best performance yet on the tour in his 3 year run.

A driver who came out of nowhere and proved he still had some speed was 53 year old Cipriano Lambri who hadn't been on the tour since Turkey of 2000, ran strongly during the event and finished a fine 4th holding off a charging Fabrizio Bocca who was 3 seconds back in 5th at the end after starting 12th.

Portugese driver Durarte Benavente was 6th in an ill handling boat while Italian's Ivan Torta took 7th after running 4th for a time, while his teammate Francesco Cantando, who started 3rd had engine problems and finished 9th in his on again off again running power plant.

Another Italian Vincenzo Polli was 8th in his new boat debuting his new colours and his new team getting his 2nd points race in three for 2002.

The U.I.M. F1 World Championship if heading for next weekends event in Budapest, Hungary and the Grand Prix of Hungary on Sunday, 23rd of June.