AL QAMZI WIN MAKES EMIRATES A 3 TIME WINNER IN CHINA!
CAPPELLINI 2ND; SELIO 3RD MOVES HIM INTO POINTS LEAD!

XI’AN, China – Friday, October 05, 2007 – The Emirates Team domination in China continued in 2007 as Thani Al Qamzi picked up his first points of the season and his 2nd career victory and marked the third straight year that an Emirates Team driver had won in China at the Grand Prix of Xi’an in front of tens of thousands of race fans on the Chamba River in this historic city of 8 million people of Xi’an.

The 3rd Round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating was a wild event right from the start when pole sitter Guido Cappellini of the Tamoil Team got off to a slow start dropping down nearly 10 places with Al Qamzi, who started 4th, battling side by side with French driver Philippe Dessertenne of the CTIC China Clarente Marine Team going into the third turn with Dessertenne coming out the worst barrel rolling to his first accident in many years and ending his day without completing a lap.

On the re-start Cappellini was moved back to the front where he started and held off a mixture of determined drivers for the next 47 laps. While the native of Como, Italy held the point, Jonas Andersson of Sweden pushed into 2nd place before retiring on the 24th lap missing out on his first possible victory.

Al Qamzi and Selio then fought for 2nd with World Champion Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team who has won the last 2 races in China, stayed close until he felt ill on the 27th lap and left the event eventually going to the hospital for observation.

A driver who was starting to make a real impact on the top 5 was another Swedish pilot in Pierre Lundin who started 8th and would eventually finish a fine 4th in his Comparato Racing machine.

Australian David Trask was 5th after starting 8th on a good effort, while rookie French driver Philippe Tourre came home in is best finishing position of his young career in 6th after qualifying 15th.

Durate Benavente of Portugal began 12th and moved up to finish 7th for his 2nd top 10 effort in the last two races. Ex-World Champion Fabrizio Bocca of Italy put on a real show going from 17th to take 8th for his 3rd straight top-10 finish while the third Emirates Team driver Ahmed Al Hamli got his first complete race of the year taking 9th place.

Veteran driver Francesco Cantando of the Singha Team moved up 12 places to take home the final point of the afternoon with a solid 10th place finish.

Last years Rookie-of-the-Year Ivan Brigada of the Tamoil Team crashed out on the 34th lap while sitting in 4th place barrel rolling in a big way and going to the hospital with facial injuries. Russian pilot Stanislov Kourtsenovsky also crashed out on the 20th lap while fighting for a top 10 position and ended up wet but thankfully uninjured.
For race winner Al Qamzi it was his 2nd victory in his last four starts after winning from the pole position at the Grand Prix of Sharjah last December at the final round of the 2006 season.

“This is a great day for me and my team,” said the 29 year-old from Abu Dhabi. “My boat ran really well and I saved my engine for the final re-start with just 7 laps to go and got around Guido. All in all, a great day but was sorry for my friend, teammate and teacher Scott who is still recovering from his illness. Now that I have 20 points I feel I’m back in the championship points race.”

The series takes a week off before heading to the next stop on the China “doubleheader” tour to the southern city of Shenzhen just north of Hong Kong near the South China Sea on the weekend of the 20th and 21st of October. With a new leader in the championship Sami Selio, all of a sudden there is a logjam at the top of the points table. What more could you ask for from the world’s most exciting race series on water!

For additional information, interviews or video footage please contact:

Steve Michael Reporting - Philippe Stiernon F1 Press Officer

Photos: http://www.f1boatphotos.com