CAPPELLINI GETS UPPER HAND IN QUALIFYING!

The native of Como, Italy set the fast time of the day around the 8-turn 2.23 kilometer course with a 46.81 second lap taking pole position in front of his rival Scott Gillman of the local Emirates Team who was able to manage a 48.12 as the driver from Los Angeles was trying for his 2nd straight pole on his home waters but came up 1.31 seconds short of Guido's 61st pole since 1995.

"We checked our telemetry on the boat and realized that we had set the fastest ever in our qualifying history with a 228 kilometer speed on the back straightaway", stated Guido. "Our homework paid off and now we have the pole and now, hopefully a win tomorrow to make it a perfect race meeting."

The three time World Champion Gillman has a 5 point cushion over Cappellini but with 20 points being awarded for a victory and 15 points for 2nd, the five points isn't much to cling to with two races still up for grabs with 8 days left in the 2006 season.

"We are quite pleased with 2nd considering we haven't had much time in the boat since switching hulls in the past few weeks," stated Gillman. "Now we need to concentrate on the race set-up in our Baba boat and I can only hope to pull together my 3rd career victory here along with a 2nd straight since we won here last season."

While most of the attention was on these drivers who have been fighting for the title since Gillman joined the tour in 1997, the officials became big players in the remaining qualifying, when first, Emirates driver Thani Al Qamzi was tossed out of his 2nd place position in the qualifying order after he was found underweight and
will now start in the 6th position.

Another driver was also removed from his qualifying order when Cappellini's teammate Ivan Brigada was also found to be underweight and will now start 5th rather than his expected 4th before being weighed by the U.I.M. Officials after removing the boat from the water.

Taking full advantage of the situation was Italian Massimo Roggiero of the Qatar Team who now slides into 3rd position with a time of a 49.25 second lap as he looks for his 2nd podium finish of the season. Roggiero's teammate, American Jay Price crashed heavily in the opening lap of timed qualifying and will start at the tale end of the 25 boat field tomorrow as the crew failed to get the boat ready for the remaining qualifying sessions.

Rookie Jonas Anersson of the Rainbow Team will now start 4th with a 50.14 second qualifying lap as he chases Brigada and Jay Price for "Rookie of the Year" honors.

Just missing the top-6 "shootout" will be Sami Selio of Finland in his Red Devil Selio F1 boat with a 50.72 second lap. Eighth will be Australian driver David Trask in his XPV Racing hull along side Duarte Benavente of Portugal with a 51.37 second lap. Rounding out the top 10 will be two time race winner Laith Pharaon of Team Green making only his 3rd start of the season doing a time of 51.37 second lap in his DAC hull.

Twenty five drivers from 13 different nations are ready to tackle this very difficult 8-turn course along the corniche in downtown Abu Dhabi with the 14th Annual event and the 5th of six rounds of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating starting at 15:30 local, 11:30 GMT and 06:30 Eastern Standard Time in North America.

Philippe Stiernon
F1 Press Officer