Italian Grand Prix of the Sea - Italian Power Pole double

by Sam Feasey on 4 Jul 2009
San Benedetto’s home town hero Marco Pennesi powered to pole position at the Italian Grand Prix of the Sea on Friday evening.

Charging across the sun-drenched Lingomare shoreline, the Metamarine Pignolo 53 powerboat edged out Italian rivals SNAV OSG by 0.6 of a second with Cigarette Smash Poker starting from third in Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Metamarine’s triumphant pilot, Pennesi said: 'It is an unexpected result. Our boat is not suited to today’s calm conditions. It is a very large boat and prefers much rougher seas. It's a welcome surprise.

'I have found my confidence again with the boat and the team. I am extremely happy that we have the opportunity to start from such a privileged position and we will be going all out to win tomorrow.'

Baia Attolini ensured an Italian double celebration with the fastest qualifying time in the open-canopy SuperSport Class.

The Naples-based team has been threatening a top-placed finish all season and Friday’s pole-finder, albeit at the expense of Team SW1 Capital who suffered a three-minute penalty for missing a buoy, has given the speed-king trio of Stefano Acanfora, Roy Capasso and Renato Guidi a timely boost ahead of Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Acanfora said: 'I had very good feeling before today and I hope it can be the same tomorrow. It’s a fantastic start!'

The Powerboat P1 Italian Grand Prix of the Sea Sprint Race on July 4 begins at 14:00 (GMT +2) at the Nuala Darsene Porto Turistico.

Classified Results (Evolution):
1. #53 Metamarine Corse Pignolo (Marco Pennesi / Luca Nicolini) Time: 02:41.20
2. #88 SNAV OSG (Hannes Bohinc / Giovanni Carpitella) 02:41.26
3. #10 Cigarette Smash Poker (Luca Formilli Fendi / Matteo Nicolini) 02:44.41
4. #47 Silverline (Jan Falkowski / Drew Langdon) 02:53.20
5. #66 Cranefield Wines (Mark Niemann / Gino Passchier) 05:41.00*
7. #33 Furnibo (Pierre Colpin / Frank Hemelaer) DNS
7. #77 Lucas Oil Budweiser (Joe Sgro / Nigel Hook / Mike Fiore) DNS

*Includes 03:00 minute penalty for missed buoy

Classified Results (Supersport):
1. #38 Baia Attolini (Stefano Acanfora / Renato Guidi / Roy Capasso) Time: 03:14.31
2. #43 Seagull Chaudron (Aaron Ciantar / Angelo Tedesci / Viktor Shemchuk 03:15.88
3. #44 Ikocasa (Shelley Jory / Audrien Ciantar) 03:17.01
4. #17 MasForce (Micha Robyn / Patrick Huybreghts / Marc Sluszny) 03:24.82
5. #28 Blue Shaft (Gianbattista Gabriele / Alfredo Zanardo / Federico Montanari) 03:35.07
6. #22 Big Sergio (Alfredo Nuzzo / Alfredo Amato) 04:19.12*
7. #26 Team SW1 Capital (Daniel Cramphorn / Kim Collins) 06:13.37**
9. #08 Phoenix 8 (Martin Lai) DNS
9. #59 Saho (Maurizio Di Stasio / Federico Terenziani) DNS

*Includes 01:00 minute time penalty for overspeeding
** Includes 03:00 minute time penalty for missed buoy

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