SELIO CELEBRATES POLE ON FATHERS BIRTHDAY!
CAPPELLINI OUTDUALS AL QAMZI FOR 2ND!

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – 6th of December, 2007 – Finnish driver Sami Selio captured his first pole position of the year and his 2nd of his career to lead the field of 25 drivers for tomorrow’s 15th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi on the edge of the Arabian Gulf in downtown Abu Dhabi.

“We were finally in the right position to grab pole position and our setup couldn’t be any better,” said Selio. “We now feel we are in the right spot to capture our 2nd victory of the year and still keep ourselves in a fight for the title if all goes well tomorrow.”

The native of Helsinki did a 47.96 second lap around the 2.1 kilometer course that features 7 turns including two right handed pins that will tax the drivers with high speeds. This course has a history of a high attrition rate for many pilots who fail to get to the finish line before the ending of the event.

Starting 2nd will be World Championship points leader Guido Cappellini of the Tamoil Team who did a 48.31 second lap and a kilometer less than the 162 kph lap that Selio had registered. Cappellini is looking to capture his 10th world title in his 18th season of racing.

“For us, we are poised to win this championship tomorrow,” said Cappellini. We need to finish on the podium and ahead of our competition to finish the job.”

Starting behind the native of Como, Italy is local native Thani Al Qamzi of the Emirates Team who was  1/10th of a second slower than Cappellini with a 48.41 second lap and now knows he needs to put together a memorable performance for his shot at the title for 2007. He sits 15 points back with 40 possible points up for grabs in the final two events.

Starting 4th will be Swedish driver Jonas Andersson who is starting in the top 4 for the fourth time this season and looking to finish his 2nd event having dropped out of 5 of the previous 6 starts either by accident of boat failures. He ran a 49.46 second lap improving by 3/10’s of a second in the shootout compared to his standard qualifying sessions.

Australian driver David Trask will start 5th after running a lap of 50.13 and a speed of 156 kph reaching his 3rd shootout of the season and looking for his first podium of the season as well.

Italian racing veteran Massimo Roggiero of the Woodstock Team starting in his 100th F1 race, will begin 6th with a lap of 50.64 second doing a great job in his first appearance since the 2006 season in his own BABA designed boat.

Emirates Team driver Ahmed Al Hamli was 7th quickest and just missed the shootout with a 50.47 second lap with this being the third time this season he has started from that position on the start pontoon.

Starting 8th is Italian Francesco Cantando in his best qualifying performance of the season with a 50.58 second lap in his Blaze self designed boat. In the 9th position off the dock will be Swedish driver Pierre Lundin 4th in the championship with 38 points and looking for his 3rd straight podium finish.

Rounding out the top 10 is American Rookie driver Shaun Torrente of the Rainbow Team doing a 51.47 despite only running the first of two qualifying sessions after having his engine expire late in the session and failing to get another before the end of the afternoon.

Shaun went quicker than other notable drivers such as fellow American Jay Price of the Qatar Team who struggled in finding the handling of his teammates boat only to miss the 2nd session with a failed battery and will start in the 12th position with the driver who is 6th in the championship.

Fellow first timer Ugis Gross of the Tamoil Team will start 23rd with a best time of a 55.07 as he learns the ropes of an F1 boat after running a very successful F2000 career for the Latvian driver.

Twenty six drivers from 14 different nations came here this weekend ready for championship hopes. Twenty-five pilots focused on the start at the 15th Annual Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi and the 7th Round of the 2007 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating in what should be a great fan support of tens of thousands along the magic of the cornice in downtown Abu Dhabi.

 The start of the event is scheduled for 15:30 local, 11:30 GMT and 6:30 Eastern Standard Time on the East Coast of North America.

For additional information, interviews or video footage please contact:

Steve Michael Reporting - Philippe Stiernon F1 Press Officer

Photos: http://www.f1boatphotos.com