Gillman wins Portugal Grand Prix, David Trask 7th

by Philippe Stiernon on 16 May 2007 World Champion Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team held off the challenge of Italian Guido Cappellini and American Jay Price to win the opening round of the 2007 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating at the 9th Annual Grand Prix of Portugal in front of tens of thousands of race fans along the 1.66 kilometer course on the Arade River on Portugal's Algarve Coast.

From Australia’s XPV team David Trask finished seventh and his elder brother Bob Trask finished in eleventh place.

The four time World Title holder led from the start and never looked back while feeling the pressure from Cappellini who dogged him for the full 60 laps in his new Tamoil DAC hull especially made for the newly mandated crash boxes for added protection of the drivers around the cockpit area.

Cappellini had some drama just before the start when he realized his engine had a defective flywheel that needed to be changed just before the parade lap.

The native from Los Angeles, California, Gillman battled two re-starts after a pair of crashes in mid race by Italian Francesco Cantando and teammate Ahmed Al Hamli and continued to keep Cappellini at bay until the end of the Grand Prix to win for the second time in Portugal and the 23rd time in his 10 year F1 career.

'We did what we had to do in such a physically taxing event today,' stated Scott. 'Our set-up wasn't the best but we were able to come away with an important win to lead the championship and look forward to next weekend in La Rochelle and the Grand Prix of France.'

While Cappellini chased Gillman, Jay Price of the Qatar Team was cutting his way up the field in a hurry passing Swedish driver Jonas Andersson of the F1 Team Sweden boat and then got in a physical dual with Finnish driver Sami Selio trading paint with the Helsinki driver at least once on his way to third.

'We worked on getting a good jump and were able to do it at the start,' said Jay. 'The Qatar Team boat and Selio were caught up at the same piece of real estate going towards the right hander and we got together and I've still got the paint on the back side of the sponson to show the evidence of it.'

For the driver from New Orleans, Louisiana it was his second podium finish in just 7 F1 starts since coming over from F2000 in 2006. Jay was the final driver to finish on the lead lap drifting back 33.13 seconds behind the winner at races end.

Selio took his first top-5 finish in over a year while Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne of the CTIC China Charente Maritime Team came home fifth pushing Selio after starting ninth on the day. He will be under added pressure next weekend at his home Grand Prix in La Rochelle.

Swedish driver Pierre Lundin finished a race in Portugal for the first time in his three tries with a well earned sixth after starting 13th. David Trask from Australia took seventh after qualifying eighth while Frenchman Philippe Chiappe was eighth and one time World Champion Fabrizio Bocca of the Rainbow Team took home ninth. Rounding out the top ten and picking up the final point of the day was rookie Leo Benelli of the Qatar Team. Australia’s Bob Trask finished eleventh.

With his victory, Scott Gillman leads the World Championship points table with 20, followed by Cappellini's 15, Jay Price's 12, Sami Selio's 9 and Philippe Dessertenne's 7.

The next round of the 2007 U.I.M. F1 World Championship will be next weekend on France's West Coast in the city of La Rochelle as the series returns to France for the 18th time and the first since 2000 on the 20th of May.

GP of Portugal	Portimao, 12 & 13 May
Race Classification Posn Boat Driver Nat Team Lap's Down Points 1 1 GILLMAN Scott USA Emirates F1 Team 60 1:00:41 20 2 21 CAPPELLINI Guido ITA Tamoil F1 60 2.27 15 3 11 PRICE Jay USA Qatar Team 60 33.13 12 4 5 SELIO Sami FIN F1 Team Energy 59 38.91 9 5 7 DESSERTENNE Philippe FRA CTIC China Charente Maritime 59 L1 7 6 20 LUNDIN Pierre SWE Comparato Racing 59 L1 5 7 4 TRASK David AUS XPV Racing 59 L1 4 8 9 CHIAPPE Phiippe FRA Atlantic Team 58 L2 3 9 31 BOCCA Fabrizio ITA Rainbow Team 58 L2 2 10 12 BONELLI Leo ITA Qatar Team 57 L3 1 11 3 TRASK Bob AUS XPV Racing 57 L3 12 32 LAGIANNELLA Valerio ITA Rainbow Team 56 L4 13 8 PENG Linwu CHN CTIC China Charente Maritime 55 L5 14 23 LEIDI Franco ITA Singha F1 Racing 51 L9 15 6 KOURTSENOVSKY Stan RUS F1 Team Energy 48 L12 16 10 BENAVENTE Duarte POR Atlantic Team 35 RET 17 22 GAMBI Marco ITA Tamoil F1 32 RET 18 27 AL HAMLI Ahmed UAE Emirates F1 Team 26 RET 19 2 AL QAMZI Thani UAE Emirates F1 Team 23 RET 20 24 CANTANDO Francesco ITA Singha F1 Racing 15 RET 21 14 ANDERSSON Jonas SWE F1 Team Sweden 14 RET 22 15 TOURRE Philippe FRA F1 Team Sweden 13 RET 23 19 COMPARATO Fabio SWE Comparato Racing 5 RET                 Remarks   Boat No 2 one lap deducted for destroying buoy turn 8 rule 313.03 Boat No 7 one lap deducted for destroying buoy turn 2 rule 313.03 Boat No 12 one lap deducted for destroying buoy turn 4 rule 313.03 Boat No 12 one lap deducted for destroying buoy turn 3 rule 313.03 Boat No 19 one lap deducted for destroying buoy turn 6 rule 313.03