CAPPELLINI FASTEST FOR 4TH TIME IN CHINA!
DESSERTENNE & ANDERSSON QUALIFY CAREER BEST 2-3!

XI’AN, China – Thursday, October 04, 2007 –  Italian Guido Cappellini of the Tamoil Team earned his first pole position of the season and his 62nd of his career and will lead the field of 23 drivers for the Grand Prix of Xi’an at the 3rd Round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship here in the ancient capital in the center of China. His qualifying effort of 40.67 seconds was good enough for a speed of 125.67 kph around the 1.9 kilometer 7 turn course.

Cappellini, who is 4th in the championship with 15 points, is looking for his 3rd victory in the country and his first since 1996 along with his 4 career pole positions.

 “We are excited about the qualifying with our new boat, but tomorrow will be a very difficult race on this 1.9 kilometer course,” said the 9-time World Champion. “We need to get a good result since we are 20 points behind in the championship but this is a great way to put us in position to gain some ground on the leader.”

The points leader is the current World Champion Scott Gillman who has won at Portugal and leads the championship with 35 points, but had a less than happy day qualifying a disappointing 6th and will now have to work hard for the Emirates Team driver to win in China for a third straight year with a lap of 42.67 seconds.

Starting 2nd is a very excited Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne who ties his career best qualifying effort with the last time he started this far up front was at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi in 2002.

“We are excited to do so well here in my adopted home of China now that we are racing for the CTIC China Charente Maritime Team and the complete effort of the team makes this even more exciting,” said the driver from La Rochelle. “My teammate Peng Lin Wu is starting 20th and should move forward and at the end of the day we hope to have both boats solidly up in the top-10 for championship points. I am hoping that I can win for the second time and I have a great chance to do so tomorrow.”

Swedish driver Jonas Andersson in only his 8th start has also qualified his best in his short career with a solid 3rd place and a time of 42.29 seconds has he chases his 3rd ever podium and his 2nd in a row after taking 3rd at the Grand Prix of France at the last round.

Emirates Team driver Thani Al Qamzi will start 4th with an excellent qualifying time of  a 42.37 second lap chasing his first points of the season. Sami Selio of the F1 Team Energy Team was a disappointed 5th coming into the shootout 2nd quick, but during his two lap pole qualifying effort had his engine expire just as he finished his first lap and ran a 42.56 second effort and will now start just ahead of Gillman.

Italian Ivan Brigada returning to racing for the first time in 7 months time with the Tamoil Team just missed a shot at the top-6 shootout by 1/1000th of a second with a time of 42.61.

Australian David Trask was running up in the top-6 for a long time during the qualifying sessions until he came to a stop on the circuit with 15 minutes to go and never got another chance to move up in the line-up order and will start 8th.

Pierre Lundin of Sweden will start 9th in his Comparato Racing DAC hull, while Frenchman Philippe Chiappe of the Atlantic Team will start in 10th for his third straight top-10 qualifying run of the season.

The 6th race in the country of China and the Grand Prix of Xi’an will take place tomorrow afternoon at 15:00 local time and 09:00 GMT as 23 drivers from 10 countries will do battle on the very difficult 7-turn 1.9 kilometer course here in the ancient capital of Central China.

For additional information, interviews or video footage please contact:

Steve Michael Reporting - Philippe Stiernon F1 Press Officer

Photos: http://www.f1boatphotos.com