SAMI SELIO AND BABA BOATS GET FIRST GP WIN IN FRANCE !
GILLMAN 2ND LEADS CHAMPIONSHIP ; ANDERSSON 3RD!

LA ROCHELLE, France – 20 of May, 2007 – Finnish driver Sami Selio earned his first Grand Prix in his 64th start along with his BABA boat depite battling for most of the day in rough water and a loss of power steering at the 18th Grand Prix of France the 2nd round of the 2007 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating in front of thousands of fans in the inner harbour of La Rochelle on the West Coast of France.

« I’m so happy I spent much of the winter in the gymnasium, » said Selio. « I was beat up and worn out on this 6 turn 2 kilometer course as I had a whole host of people chasing me at the same time which made this a very uncomfortable but satisfying event. »

The start of the 50 lap event was a bit confusing with several drivers jump starting the event with all eyes following Emirates team rookie Ahmed Al  Hamli who led for the first few laps only to drop out and later penalized by the U.I.M. officials for jump starting the lights.

Thani Al Qamzi of the Emirates team took over first with teammate and number one driver Scott Gillman of Los Angeles, California holding onto 2nd place despite a bad case of the flu finishing the day in the runner-up place picking up  his 55th career podium and now leading the World Championship with 35 points to Selio’s 29 points.

« I’m happy to leave France with this finish because I’ve struggled all weekend with the flu, » said Scott. « Now we have some valueable time to prepare for the Grand Prix of Singapore in August. »

Swedish driver Jonas Andersson came charging up from starting 9th to place 3rd on a steady drive that pushed Gillman to the last lap in his F1 Team Sweden boat. Fourth went to Qatar driver Jay Price who had a slow start fell to 15th and came charging up to the top-5 and picked up 9 more valuable championship points for the driver from New Orleans, Louisiana.

French driver Philippe Chiappe in the Atlantic team BABA boat was 5th with his best result of the season while his teammate Duarte Benavente of Portugal finishing 9th in his Dragon boat after starting 14th.

Russian Stanislov Kourtsenovsky in the other F1 Team Energy boat started 15th and finished 6th on the day in a good run, while Italian rookie Leo Bonelli was 7th in the 2nd Qatar boat. Italian Fabrizio Bocca of the Rainbow team finished a fine 8th after having moved up as far  as 5th before dropping down to 12th before battling back in the top-10.

Marco Gambi of the Tamoil team got his first points since Qatar of 2005 finishing 10th while his teammate, multi-time World Champion Guido Cappellini dropped out of the event in 3rd place on the 12th lap officially being classified 20th.

Pole sitter David Trask of Australia and the XPV Racing team was in a fight for a podium finish and the overall lead until his damaged boat that was involved in a collision early on in the event, finally had the steering cable go out of song ending his day with just 3.5 laps remaining.

Local La Rochelle pilot Philippe Dessertenne of the CTIC China Charente Maritime team was in the top 5 before he hit a bouy and later was disqualified for rounding a buoy illegally and being classified 23rd.

As the European part of the 2007 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating comes to a close the next will take place in lovely Marina Bay in downtown Singapore on the 18th and 19th of August with drivers from 4 different continents expected to take up the next part of the battle for the world championship on water.

For additional information, interviews or video footage please contact:

Steve Michael Reporting - Philippe Stiernon F1 Press Officer

Photos: http://www.f1boatphotos.com