CAPPELLINI WINS OPENING ROUND IN PORTUGAL!
GILLMAN & LEPPALA IN TOP 3!

SUNDAY, MAY 2ND — Portimao, Portugal: Guido Cappellini the 4-time World Champion who had not won since July of 1998, took his 20th career victory by dominating the first round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship here on the Southern Coast of Portugal in front of 50,000 first time fans.

Cappellini, who is never afraid to gamble, elected to choose his short 5.5 meter boat for the 2.5 kilometer 9-turn course and stormed off to a 5.2 second victory in his DAC Racing/Castrol hull too take the lead in the World Championship with 20 points. The native of Como, Italy, who now races for the Principality of Monaco, raced into the first corner and beat Finland driver Pertti Leppala and American Scott Gillman to hold a lead he would never loose.

Gillman, the 1997 World Champion racing for the first time with the new Emirates Racing team, moved past Leppala on the first lap and held ground but started to fall behind Cappellini on the opening few laps. Gillman had an eventful afternoon, losing power and stopping on the 18th lap, letting Leppala past, and under full power again passing Leppala 3 laps later to gain back 2nd place. Gillman lost his chance to catch Cappellini when his trim quit working on the 33 lap after a re-start off a yellow flag thrown on the course after Italian Franco Leidi stopped on the front straightaway.

Leppala, was lucky to finish in 3rd position. He was hit by another boat early on, then started taking on water, first losing 2nd to Gillman, 3rd to Massimo Roggiero and 4th to rookie Fabio Comparato half way into the event. But the ex-World Speed Ski Champion stayed with it and got his 3rd place back and reached the podium for the first time since Moscow last August during his first win in F1.

Italian Massimo Roggiero was a second back in 4th after a sold run, while rookie DAC Racing driver Fabio Comparato coming from F2 was 5th in only his 2nd race in F1. Swedish pilot Goran Karloff was a lap down in 6th place, holding off Italian Fabrizio Bocca 15 seconds further back in 7th. Current World Champion Jonathan Jones in his wooden Burgess hull, took on water after a collision and was a dissapointed 8th after qualifying 4th. Sami Selio, teammate of Leppala was 9th and Italian Cipriano Lambri was 10th.

The next round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship will take place on the weekend of May 15th and 16th in Cagliari, Sardinia in Italy.