PORTO, Portugal - Sunday, August 2, 2015 - Defending World Champion Philippe Chiappe of France drove his CTIC China Moore raceboat to a convincing victory chasing leader and pole sitter Sami Selio of Finland for the first third of the race and powered away to his first win of the season at the 14th Grand Prix of Portugal in front of over 100,000 race fans along the Douro River in Porto.
On a warm and lovely late afternoon, Selio in his Mad Croc Baba Racing boat took advantage of the inside lane off the start pontoon and moved into an immediate lead holding off 18 other drivers including Chiappe who stayed less than three seconds hounding him for the first 10 laps of the third round of the 2015 UIM F1 H2O World Championship.
The driver from Rouen made a strong pass on the outside of the back straight going into turns five and six and passed the two time World Champion never looking back for the remaining 24 laps of the event and picking up fourth career victory.
"We had a great race," said Philippe. "It's such a great feeling after losing a possible victory in France a month ago, we were determined to get it right this time around and boy am I happy as we are right back at the top of the championship heading to China."
For Selio, things went from bad to worst with his throttle cable sticking less than full speed, he and third place driver Alex Carella of Team Abu Dhabi were side by side for the second place battle when Selio on the back straight on the north end of the circuit slowed and was hit by Carella sending his boat airborne and finally barrel rolling to stop ending his dreams of important points and falling further back in his wish to win a third world title.
"It was so frustrating," said the driver from Helsinki. "We had the speed and package to win but little things can play a factor and it took our dreams away with it. We'll be ready to charge in China in two months, it's not over by any means for us."
Finishing runner-up was the Swedish driver Erik Stark from the Emirates Team who started fourth and didn't give up all day staying right in the hunt for a podium finish and on the re-start after the Selio accident brought out the yellow flag he pushed hard getting past Carella holding off the Italian for the final few laps of the event.
Fourth was veteran Francesco Cantando of the Motorglass F1 Team as the driver from Milan started 11th and came up as far as second on the re-start late in the race dropping back to take fourth just in front of Drivers World Championship points leader American Shaun Torrente of the Victory Team.
Torrente, now with 36 points has had his lead narrowed to just one point with Chiappe's victory giving him 35 after three races followed by both Youssef Al-Rubayan of Kuwait who was eighth today along with Erik Stark as the pair is tied for third with 27 points.
Swedish driver Jonas Andersson dropped out late in the race while ninth finishing without any points and now has slipped from second to fifth position with 24 points in the standings.
Thani Al Qemzi, who returned to racing for the first time since December of last year finished a fine sixth position in the Team Abu Dhabi being the last of the competitors to be lapped by the winner Chiappe.
Young 21 year-old Filip Roms of the Mad Croc F1 Team was sixth and is tied with Carella for fifth with 19 points after earning his first ever podium a month again in France.
French driver Christophe Larigot in the EMIC Team boat was ninth and Ahmed Al Hameli of the Emirates Team was the last point paying driver taking a single point in 10th position.
The hundreds of thousands that showed up in this lovely Northwest corner of Portugal got their monies worth at this lovely river circuit while the tour looks down the road two months from today for the fourth round on the first and second of October in lovely Liuzhou and the Grand Prix of China.
With three races in the mix there are still seven drivers still right in the mix for the world title and the action is only get more heated and exciting as well as the tour now heads to the Far East.
You can follow all the news and updates of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship tour by going to the official website at www.f1h2o.com.
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