CANTANDO WINS CRASH FILLED EVENT  IN STRALSUND!
AL QAMZI & COMPARATO TOP 3 IN SURVIVAL CONTEST!

STRALSUND Germany: (3rd of August 2003) - Italian Francesco Cantando won his 2nd  race of the season in no other fashion than a survival test on the 1.5 kilometer 7-turn course in the inner harbour of Stralsund trying himself back on the top spot of the UIM World Championship with 55 points at the 3rd Annual Grand Prix of Germany.

The tens of thousands of fans from throughout the Eastern edge of Germany and nearby Poland were just sitting down when disaster struck taking out 4 of the top 6 competitors as they went into the first turn of the event. Guido Cappellini the pole sitter broke free on the inside lane but American Scott Gillman in 2nd and Italian Massimo Roggiero in 3rd found a fast charging Saudi Arabian driver Laith Pharaon from his 6th starting spot making it four wide into the corner. Something had to give and it did, within a split second Roggiero after he and Pharaon hit went over the top of Scott Gillman as then speared Roggiero and came to a stop.

As Gillman sat in the water, coming up in 8th spot was Danish driver Gert Ladefoged came up and thru the spray of blinding water crashed sideways into Gillman and the Emirates number one driver had two boats hanging of his DAC hull. Both Roggiero and Gillman dodged the bullet as both could have easily seriously injured. Pharaon's new hull, the first of the 2004 version DAC was damaged heavily also with Ladefoged also out of the race.

After a half hour getting the course clear, the restart saw Cappellini jump into the lead until the 6th lap when Cantando, back in 2nd place made a marvellous move and slid into the lead for good on this 70 lap event. Cappellini on the 13th lap was caught lapping Belgium driver Julius Leysen the two touched with Leysen barrel rolling to and end down in turn 2.

Cappellini pushed Cantando hard after that until the 30th lap when his trim indicator gave him a false reading and he first stuffed and then flipped the boat end over end in spectacular fashion ending his afternoon.

From that point on it was all Francesco Cantando as the Singha Beer driver cruised to a 5 second victory with Emirates Team younger driver Thani Al Qamzi having his career best effort finishing a fine 2nd place after starting 7th.

Third was Italian Fabio Comparato 13 seconds back in his Nautica Comparato DAC effort moving into 3rd place in the championship with 37 points. France's Philippe Dessertenne was 4th and chased hard by Italian Fabrizio Bocca in the Corona Extra Beer DAC hull 1 and 1/2 seconds in 5th.

Russian pilot Stanislav Kourtsenovsky finished a career high 6th in his Zepter Team machine running as high as the 4th position before settling on 6th. Massimiliano Moreschi was 7th for his first championship points with a 7th in the Singha Beer effort, with veteran Franco Leidi 8th rookie Christian Jansson of Sweden 9th and rounding out the top 10 was English driver Andy Elliott in the KRB Rips sponsored machine.

The next event of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship tour will be in two months after a summer break in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on the 5th of October and the 3rd Annual Grand Prix of Malaysia.