SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates – Wednesday, December 9, 2009 – After an nine month journey that started in Portimao, Portugal in early April, it's down to the final two days of the 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship with a logjam at the top with five drivers still in the hunt for the grand prize with three of these desperate to do well on Thursday afternoon or their dreams of winning the title will be over.
Italian nine-time World Champion Guido Cappellini leads the pack by 10 points and with 20 going to the winner of each of the two Grand Prix's on Thursday and Friday. Guido would like to put it all away tomorrow afternoon at 15:50 local time with a victory. Guido's four pursuers all hope he has the same luck that he's had his last three years, no points in the Khaled Lagoon. It this happens tomorrow, let's start from the back and work our way forward to explain how each drivers predicament would play out.
Sami Selio the Mad Croc sponsored Finnish star is sitting at 100 points, twenty-nine behind Cappellini. He needs to not only finish in the top three and as previously mentioned have Guido fail to pick up any points to be still in the game for the title on Friday morning. Sami is the odds on favorite for pole since he's gotten the number one spot on the dock for seven of the last eight starts and has poled here in Sharjah the last two years.
Swedish driver Jonas Andersson with Team Azerbaijan is sitting with 104 points and needs to finish fifth or higher to have any hopes of winning a title if Cappellini fails to capture points. Then, Jonas would need to on Friday win and hope Cappellini does the same thing twice to have his shot at glory.
Qatar Team and defending World Champion Jay Price is one point better than Jonas at 105 and he needs to finish sixth or better tomorrow and hope for a win on Friday and have Cappellini finish with zero's across the board for both races to have his shot for back to back titles.
Finally, local driver Thani Al Qamzi of Team Abu Dhabi is confident he has an honest shot at the title remaining only 10 points back and having won this race in Sharjah two of the last three years. He's in the best position and could actually finish 10th and have a shot against Cappellini on Friday if the Italian fails to gain points tomorrow.
The scenario will be played out in earnest tomorrow afternoon with the 30 minute plus two extra green flag laps event followed by the same starting time of 15:50 local, 11:50 GMT and 06:50 EST on the East Coast of North America on Friday wrapping up the 16 Grand Prix season that has a five driver scrum for the World Title. It doesn't get any better than this.
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