ROGGIERO GETS 1ST POLE OF YEAR IN MALAYSIA!
GILLMAN & CAPPELLINI IN TOP 3!

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: (17th of August) - Italian Massimo Roggiero not only beat out his teammate Guido Cappellini of the Zepter Team but also the field of 20 drivers and will lead the field in tomorrow's Grand Prix of Malaysia at the beautiful Mines Resort City just outside Kuala Lumpur for Round #7 of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating.

Roggiero, who was 3rd quickest coming into the 6 boat shootout for pole position at days end, ripped off a 47.18 second lap for a speed of 147.64 kph around the 2 kilometer course at the main Mines Resort City lake. The Northern Italian native now has 10 pole positions in his career and this being his first since Riga, Lativia a year and 12 races ago.

American Scott Gillman, who had been quickest since the first of two qualifying sessions, couldn't equal or better his early afternoon time of a 47.57 lap that turned out to be .39 of a second slower than Roggiero's. The lead driver of the Emirates Team is back in his old DAC hull after using the new Seebold boat for one event in the Grand Prix of Germany two weeks ago.

Third quick was Roggiero's teammate and world championship points leader Guido Cappellini of Como, Italy who ended up disappointed in his efforts and settled for 3rd quick with a lap of 47.67 seconds and a speed of 146.12 kph. Cappellini, who has a large lead in the title chase for the World Championship with 100 points, has won 5 of 6 races this season and is looking to either pad the title lead or go for the win. We shall see in the early laps if he elects to chase for his 47th career victory.

Another Italian, Fabio Comparato was 4th running one lap before coming to a stop on his 2nd of two solo tours around the 7-pin circuit with a 48.43 second time and a speed of 143.83 kph. Comparato is looking for his first career victory as well as looking to finish a race for only his 4th time this season.

Starting 5th is Saudi Arabian star Laith Pharaon who won this race a year ago and is hoping he can do the same at this new circuit. Pharaon came in 4th quick but couldn't improve and settled with a 49.16 second lap.

Starting 6th is Swedish driver Jari Honkala who was strong in the first qualifying session where he set his speed of 140.75 kph and just aced out Italian Ivan Torta by 1 1/100 of a second while doing a 49.49. Torta, beat out his Singha Beer teammate for the first time this season as Francesco Cantando struggled with his engine power and will start down in 9th position.

8th will be England's Andy Elliott in the KRB built machine from New Zealand as he came up with the right balance late in the day and did a 49.76 second lap and a speed of 139.99 kph. He started 9th in Germany and in one lap was up to 4th so maybe we can expect the same from him in Sunday's event.

Rounding out the top 10 is Italian Fabrizio Bocca who in his Carona Beer machine did a 50.19 second lap with Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne, 2nd in the championship running a disappointing 11th.

Twenty drivers from 13 different countries will take the flag for 50 laps around the Mines Resort City in the 7th race of the season in the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating beginning at 11:30 am local, 4:30 am GMT and 11:30 pm Saturday night Eastern Daylight Time in North America.