Gillman Loses Event In Final 10 Seconds!
PORTIMAO, Portugal: 22 May 2005 — Italian Gudio Cappellini pulled off a miracle finish by leading, losing and regaining first place and winning the 7th Annual Grand Prix of Portugal the opening round of the 2005 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating in front of thousands of fans on the Arade River.
The race turned quickly into a two boat battle as the two world champions American Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team the defending race champion and Cappellini of the Tamoil team, who had won this race 5 previous times, went toe to toe for the 55 lap distance. The native of Como led for the first three quarters of the event until the restart and Gillman pouncing on Cappellini with less than 8 laps to go to move ahead. The California driver who won in 2004 was pulling away slowly until the final lap when he came up on a myriad of back markers and took on water into the engine just enough to slow the boat for Cappellini to come up charging by in the final chicane to take his 47th victory winning by 1.86 seconds.
Third place was a battleground all it’s own, finally taken by Italian Fabio Comparato of the Comparato Racing Team who had a steady day starting 5th and battling his way to the final podium finish his 14th of his career. Taking 4th was a disappointed French driver Philippe Dessertenne who had a great start moving from 7th to 4th and eventually moving into 3rd and holding that position for half the race before being passed out of a podium finish.
In 5th was Laith Pharaon who had a jack rabbit start in his Team Green machine jumping up to 3rd before slowly dropping back to a fifth at the end. In 6th was Danish Gert Ladefoged who had a barrel rolled in morning warmup after qualifying 3rd for the event never was a factor for the top three after coming out of the first lap in 7th place. Eighth was Australian David Trask who was last years rookie of the year picked up 3 points for the XPV Racing Team after his brother Bob dropped out just 8 laps into the event.
Fabrizio Bocca of the Rainbow team took 9th after starting 20th off the dock for 2 points, while Portugal’s Duarte Benavente was in the 10th and final points paying spot, like Bocca starting way down in the order in 21st position.
Last years runner-up Francesco Cantando of the Singha Team dropped out of a podium paying position on the 39th lap and came away with a disappointing did not finish in 17th place.
The win gives Guido Cappellini 20 points to start the season with Gillman 5 points back with 15 and Comparato sitting in 3rd with 12. The next round, race number two of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship tour will be the Grand Prix of the Mediterranean in Calgiari, Sardinia on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of July.
