ROGGIERO ON PROVISIONAL POLE AT ABU DHABI!
JONES 2 ND , GILLMAN 4 TH AND CAPPELLINI 20 TH !
DECEMBER 2 ND , ABU DHABI - Italian driver Massimo Roggiero
of the DAC Racing team set the pace early with a best lap of 56:68
seconds around the 2 kilometer, 6 turn course to lead the 22 drivers
from 13 countries with a speed of 142.90 kph during the 1 st session
of the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, the 9 th and final round for the
U.I.M. F1 World Championship.
The biggest surprise so far has been the non-recording of World
Championship leader Guido Cappellini who had a problem with his
boat and failed to put in even one lap of qualifying and returned
to the pits. Welshman Jonathan Jones of the Dragon Racing effort,
2 nd in the World Championship with 72 points and nine behind Cappellini,
went out and ran the 2 nd quickest time of a 142.88 kph lap just
2/100's behind Roggiero as he his trying to make a statement that
he is far from giving up on his World Championship fight.
Still in the running for the World Title is the defending World
Champion Scott Gillman of Basalt, Colorado on the Markers-Belco-Avia
team and doing a 4 th quickest time of 141.41 kph and .60 of second
behind Roggiero. Gillman, who crashed recently at the final round
of the American PROP series event in Las Vegas back in September,
a race that he would eventually win, was working the "cobwebs"
out on an older engine and was happy with his 4 th quickest time.
Gillman needs to win the event or finish 2 nd in order to have any
chance to recapture the World title.
Teammate to Gillman, Fabrizio Bocca, was 3 rd quickest with a time
of 57.17 amd a speed of 141.68 kph, 11/100's of second quicker than
Gillman. Bocca needs a win tomrrow and hope for some bad luck from
other drivers in order for him to take 3 rd overall in the championship.
Agentina driver Carlos Maidana was an impressive 5 th with a speed
of 141.11 kph driving the ex-Gillman Seebold boat for the first
time.
Newcomer and first time F1 runner Fabio Comparato of Italy was 6
th fastest with a 139.65 kph time running with the Waircom team.
Teammate and fellow Italian Francesco Cantando was 7 th ; Frenchman
Philippe Dessertenne was 8 th ; Britan Andy Elliott was 9 th and
rounding out the top 10 was Cipriano Lambri of Italy with a speed
of 136.15 kph.
The drivers will show the true "hands" as all the cards
will be on the table with the 2nd and final qualifying session followed
by the top 6 drivers battling one final time for the "Shootout"
for the pole position.
The 9th and final round of the 1998 championship will take place
in the inner harbor of Abu Dhabi at 3:00 pm local, 12:00 GMT and
6:00 am Eastern Standard time.
Email: floridahotshot@aol.com
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