CAPPELLLINI WINS FOR 7TH TIME AT GP OF PORTUGAL!
GILLMAN’S 2ND GIVES HIM POINT LEAD; COMPARATO 3RD!

PORTIMAO, Portugal – 28th of May, 2006 – Defending World Champion Guido Cappellini of the Tamoil team stormed to the front of the field from his 4th starting position to take the lead on the first turn of 60 lap event to win for the 7th time in 8 races at the Grand Prix of Portugal, the 2nd Round of the 2006 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating.

The native of Como, Italy was pushed hard, first by his young rookie teammate Ivan Brigada who would later crash out on the 43rd lap, followed by another Italian Francesco Cantando who came charging up from 7th to later be classified back down to 7th with an illegal pass and being docked a lap.

The race once again became a battle between American Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team who came up strongly from 6th on the grid to hound Cappellini lap after lap settling for 2nd 1.60 seconds for the 2nd straight year in Portugal and taking over the points lead in the championship with 30 points in his quest for his 4th World Title.

Italian Fabio Comparato had a strong race starting 11th and with the Cantando penalty took 3rd place and the podium for the fourth straight year in Portugal having finished every race since the first event in Portimao back in 1999.

In the fourth spot was first time racer in U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating Jonas Andersson of Sweden as the F2 World Champion had a steady drive starting 14th and finishing 4th in his first ride with the Rainbow Team.

Emirates driver Thani Al Qamzi was 5th after starting in the same position and captured 7 more points and continues in 4th place in the championship with 16 points.

Australian Bob Trask had another steady drive starting in 13th position and charging his way to 6th at days end now tied for 5th in championship with 12 points.

French driver Philippe Chiappe of the Charente Maritime Team was 8th for the 2nd straight race and is now 9th in the drivers championship after starting 19th of the dock.

Great Britain’s Andy Elliott of the Atlantic Team was another driver who took advantage of other drivers misfortunes and took his first points of the season with a 9th.

Rounding out the top 10 was Luigi Roberto of the Comparato Team taking his point of the season.

Notable drivers who failed to finish were pole sitter Sami Selio of the Red Devil Selio F1 team on the 22nd lap when his boat hit an object and broke up while staying in the top 5 fight. Laith Pharaon of the Team Green group lasted just 35 laps, while 2nd place qualifier Massimo Roggiero of the Qatar Team dropped out of the top 10 and the race on the 21st lap.

French driver Philippe Dessertenne was hoping for a better finish but he had a rough day of it after taking out 3 buoys and being docked three laps by the U.I.M. officials at days end.

So, Emirates Team driver Scott Gillman now leads the championship with 30 points and 2 straight runner-up places, with Tamoil Teammates Guido Cappellini and Ivan Brigada both with a win a piece 2nd with 20 points. Fifteen different drivers have now scored points and with two rounds down and the series switching to the birthplace of the sport,
Como, Italy on the 15th and 16th of July, the championship looks wide open with seven drivers within 18 points of each other for the battle in a series that only continues to heat up as it goes on in 2006.

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Philippe Stiernon
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Philippe@f1boat.com