Guido Cappellini wins Finland Grand Prix

by Steve Michael on 13 Jun 2009
Nine time World Champion Guido Cappellini charged from third to first on the opening lap and controlled the race winning by 3.98 seconds to win for the first time in 2009 and take his second straight victory on Lake Vesijarvi at the third round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating in front of thousands of fans on a windswept and cloudy afternoon.

The lead driver for the Zepter Team pushed at the start and had the hole shot to move in front of pole sitter Massimo Roggiero of the Mad Croc F1 Racing Team who was enjoying his first pole since 2004, while also moving past defending World Champion Jay Price of the Qatar Team who struggled to find his way through traffic and never becoming a factor in the race eventually finishing 15th at days end.

'We have done a lot of testing with the new boat on Lake Como and feel we have find the right solution to get back into the World Championship fight,' said Cappellini. 'Now we feel that with such a long season we are going for not the top speed this season but consistency and now I think it's starting to pay off.'

Finishing a fine second place and now moving up from fifth to second in the drivers championship is Team Azerbaijan driver Jonas Andersson who pushed from his fourth starting position to second on the first lap and came with a few boat lengths of passing Guido at the half way point only to settle for second after 38 laps.

'We had a wild start and Jay Price and I got very close together at the start which was wild, but my new boat that Guido ran last season was perfect today and now I look forward to doing even better tomorrow,' said Andersson.
Italian Fabio Comparato charged his way from seventh to third at days end and looked close to getting past Jonas near the end but settled for a fine third position in his 800 Doctor BABA hulled boat.

Team Abu Dhabi driver Thani Al Qamzi settled for his second fourth place position of the season to pick up nine more championship points to continue his points leadership with 38 on the campaign.

Finnish driver Sami Selio finished in the top-5 for the first time in his career while at the same time gaining his first points of the year hoping to do better tomorrow in his Mad Croc F1 Team Woodstock BABA boat in front of his giant hometown crowds.

Portugal's Duarte Benavente was 6th in his DRAGON boat for the F1 Atlantic Team with rookie Ugis Gross of Latvia coming home seventh in his Zepter Team DAC hull for his second top-10 performance of the season.

Italian Valerio Lagiannella was 8th in his 800 Doctor boat, Marit Stromoy of Norway reached the top-10 for the third straight race and made it two Team Azerbaijan boats in the finish with first time racer this season in Russian Stanislav Kourtsenovsky rounding out the top-10 in his Prox F1 Racing Team DAC.

The fourth round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship will take place again tomorrow at 15:00 local and 13:00 GMT in Lahti, Finland for the 5th Annual Grand Prix of Finland.

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