ABU DHABI (UAE) - Friday, 11 December, 2015 - French driver Philippe Chiappe stayed out of harms way while watching all his rivals fall by the way side finishing second and capturing his second straight World Championship at the 24th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at the fifth stop on the UIM F1 H2O World Championship tour in downtown Abu Dhabi Friday afternoon.
Italian Alex Carella won capturing his third win in five races in Abu Dhabi and taking his first victory of the season. The victory has moved him into a second place tie with American Shaun Torrente of the Victory Team who dropped out when his new one week old boat failed him delaminating at the two-thirds mark of the 48 lap event while in fifth place.
Chiappe, who finished a wapping 48.54 seconds behind Carella, was runner-up for the second time this season after taking victories in Porto, Portugal and Liuzhou, China. The driver from Rouen now has 70 points on the year and an insurmountable 31 points ahead of both Carella and Torrente with just one race to be run next Friday, the 18th of December in Sharjah on the Khaled Lagoon.
"I am so happy we were able to do what was expected today and finish the championship here at a place where I first won a race a year ago here in Abu Dhabi," said Philippe.
"The team did such a great job building my Moore boat along with Alex Hledin who prepared my engines this season, that we never felt we were going to be pushed too deep in a hole as we focused on the prize of back to back championships."
Team Abu Dhabi also got a third place on the podium as well as Thani Al Qamzi who started dead last in 17th position came home third for his second straight podium of 2015 on a great run.
Finnish two-time World Champion Sami Selio was fourth after leading 15 laps before having mechanical problems slowing him down at the end, a lap behind the leader.
Ahmed Al Hameli of the Emirates Team came from 16th at the start to take fifth, while Portuguese driver Duarte Benavente of F1 Atlantic Team was seventh and two spots ahead of his teammate Youssef Al-Rubayan of Kuwait who was a disappointed ninth after qualifying fourth.
Norway's Marit Stromoy was a solid sixth after qualifying ninth in her EMIC Team boat.
Poland's Bartek Marszalek was eighth for the Motorglass F1 Team with French driver Christophe Larigot coming home in the final points position in 10th for the EMIC Team.
Heartbreak came to early race leader Jonas Andersson of Team Sweden with him out dueling his way to the front and leading for 32 laps before falling out with mechanical problems.
Italian Francesco Cantando in his 19th Abu Dhabi start was out of the event just eight laps in, ending his afternoon early for the Motorglass F1 Team.
The series now heads off to Sharjah for next weekend's final Grand Prix of the year with qualifying on the 17th and the Grand Prix on the 18th. You can follow all the news of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship series by going to their official website at www.f1h2o.com.
Congratulations goes out to Philippe Chiappe and the CTIC China Team for back to back world titles.
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