CAPPELLINI LOOKS TO PAD LEAD IN SINGAPORE
GILLMAN HOPES TO CONTINUE WINNING WAYS!

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates: (21st of October) - The U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating moves to lovely harborside of Singapore for the first time as the 2003 campaign makes its final push towards the championship with just 3 races to go in the season.

The man who has the most to gain and lose it the current points leader and defending World Champion Guido Cappellini of the Zepter Team with 2 wins and two 2nd's in the first 5 events in the season. The native of Como, Italy has wins at the Grand Prix's of Portugal and in Sardinia with only one non-finish while crashing out at the Grand Prix of Germany. His 70 points are 15 points better than another Italian Francesco Cantando of the Singha Team who also has 2 wins but has two non-finishes hurting his points total and sitting at 55. Cantando, who had various problems with his set-up all weekend blamed some of this on the boat sitting in the shipping containers instead of getting a chance to test.

The driver with all the "mo" is American Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team coming off a dominating performance in Malaysia after a 3 year and 30 race winless draught that he finally snapped with a 26 second winning performance over Cappellini and the rest of the field. Gillman's reuniting with engine guru Ron Anderson of Seattle, Washington seems to have paid in as he won for his 12th time of his career on the F1 circuit.

Saudi driver Laith Pharaon of the Green Team came away with his 2nd podium in three events and is looking for victory again the the Asian continent since he took victory two years ago in Malaysia. The runner-up in the championship a year ago still has a mathematical shot a winning but needs some help from others in the top 5 to faulter.

Danish driver Gert Ladefoged of the DanIta Racing Team is coming off his best finish ever with a 4th on the day after getting into the six boat "shootout" for pole position for the first time with his best ever 6th place start.

Gillman's teammate Thani Al Qamzi from Abu Dhabi has been red hot of late with a 2nd in Germany followed by a 5th in Malaysia. It's looks as if he is finally starting to feel totally comfortable on the F1 scene and is hoping to finish the season in the top 5 in points as he looks for his first ever win on the tour.

Italian Fabio Comparato continues to have a solid season with a 6th place finish in Malaysia along with a pair of thirds and a 4th to stay within the top 5 in points. Belgian driver Julius Leysen even as a rookie is starting to get into the grove picking up points again in his last 2 finishes on the DanIta Team.

One time champion Fabrizio Bocca of the Corona Extra Team was having a great race in Malaysia qualifying his best in over two years with a 5th on the dock moving up to 3rd and looking for his first podium finish in a few years only to get tied up in a crash with Russian driver Stanislav Kourtsenovsky of the Zepter Team on the final turn of the race taking a disappointing 8th. He hopes to keep the "drive alive" for another event.

A return of a multi-time World Champion in Welshman Jonathan Jones of the Dragon Team has seen the native of Cartigan go from the broadcast booth to the drivers seat running with a lot of confidence with a charge from 16th to 8th midway through the event in Kuala Lumpur until mechanical problems took him out of the race. He looks to do better in Singapore.

So, F1 comes to the beautiful city of Singapore with qualifying on Saturday the 25th with the race on Sunday the 26th at 15:00 local time (9:00 CET) and (3:00 Eastern Time in North America.