Cappellini And Gillman Both Disqualified!

VIENNA, AUSTRIA (9TH SEPTEMBER) - Italy's newest star Francesco Cantando of Milan, won his 2nd race in a row and moved ahead of fellow Italian Guido Cappellini in the battle for the World Championship by taking a 9 second victory on the windy, wavy and challenging Danube River in front of tens of thousands for the Grand Prix of Austria, the 8th round for the U.I.M. F1 world championship for power boating.

Cantando, lead driver of the Singha Beer Team, took the lead at the start passing Cappellini at the end of the long straight moving ahead of the 24 boat field before the first of the many yellow flags came out a few laps later. It was the first time in many years that the conditions dictated a moving start with rows of two since the current and the waves made starting from the start pontoon very difficult.

After almost ten laps of yellow flags while first the the eastern most turn was taken out then floated away and needed to be re attached, keeping the field circumnavigating for almost 20 minutes. Cappellini, lead driver of the Assicom Team and leader coming into the championship with 92 points took out both bouys down at the eastern most part of course and was immediately disqualified for taking out both balloons and the corner. U.I.M. officials elected to make an adjustment to the course and shortening the circuit by eliminating the corner as the race came back on after many circuits under the yellow.

Cantando had a perfect jump on the restart and held off current World Champion Scott Gillman of the U.S.A. by three seconds. He then increased it to 5 seconds as Gillman, lead driver of the Emirates Team did his best to stay with Cantando in the turbulent waters of the Danube. Lativan driver Victor Kunitch along with Swedish driver Jari Hankala in his new 2.5 litre powered Siemens boat we both were closing on Gillman before the American got caught up and took out the last turn of the chicane on the front straightaway and was like Cappellini disqualified for eliminating the turn and both bouys. Gillman, who has had the worst luck of his 16 year career has now failed to finish in all but 2 of his eight starts on the season.

Brazilian driver Paul Gaiser had the most serious crash on the day when he barrel rolled at the end of the back straightaway and was helped to the hospital with cuts on his face and bruising. Off the restart, the weather started getting dark and and even stronger winds developing but only briefly as the conditions appeared to settle down and speeds were increasing.

French driver Philippe Dessertenne, third in the championship and needing more points got up into the top 5 and picked up 7 with a 5th place finish and has 77 on the season after starting from the 8th position off the pontoon. While the Fuchs driver was closing on Cappellini and his 92 points in the championship, ex-World Champion Fabrizio Bocca had a great afternoon on the Danube starting 10th and finishing 4th his best result of the season in his Rainbow Racing effort.

Sami Selio of Finland also had a great day taking 6th on the day after starting back in 20th position in the only 3.0 litre Johnson in a sea of fast running Mercury 2.5 litre powered boats. For Selio it was his 4th top 10 finish of the year.

Rookie driver ex-F2 pilot Pierre Lundin of Sweden had a great start to his career by finishing 7th in his first race in his Malarsonering Pelton boat after qualifying 15th. Portugal driver Duarte Benavente was agressively moving forward from his season best 7th starting position and was up to 3rd early on behind Gillman. The young driver from Lisbon lost radio communication and chased down on a restart and came home 8th.

Saudi driver Laith Pharaon had a disappointing weekend qualifying 13th and taking 9th despite being fast in morning warmup. Japan,s Yutaka Sugihara took 10th place and captured the races fastest lap at the same time after starting in the18th position.

The win for Cantando moves him to the front of the field with 96 points just at the right time to see if for a 2nd straight year he can try to dominate on the waters of the United Arab Emirates as he did in 2000 and win his first ever U.I.M. F1 World Championship title. At the same time Swedish driver Jari Honkala hopes with his new 2.5 litre power he can once again show he is ready to step forward to the elite drivers of the F1 circuit.

The European season has come to a close and we are off the jewel of the Middle East the United Arab Emirates starting in Sharjah on the 12th of October followed one week later by the "city of champions" Abu Dhabi on the 19th. It continues to be a 3 way battle for the title and it will go to the 3rd continent before it is decided.