ABU DHABI - 3 May, 2014 - French pilot Philippe Chiappe traded in his usual CTIC China Team overalls for Nollet Racing colors and came home the winner for another year at the famed 24 Hours of Rouen endurance event in front of tens of thousands of his hometown spectators over the two day event in the historic northern French city of Rouen on the 1-2 of May.
The UIM F1 H2O World Championship pilot, who currently sits second in the championship after finishing runner-up at the Grand Prix of Qatar in Doha back in March, was driving his powerful Classe 3 MOORE hull, battling against 120 other pilots in 32 boats representing three different divisions in the always rough conditions on the River Seine.
"It's always very special to win in my hometown here in Rouen," said Philippe. "I've won this race numerous times and it always gives me a thrill. The good news is that at the end of the weekend, I don't have far to drive to get home which is great as well."
"Now, it's time to get focused on the rest of the F1 season since we are second in the championship and are hungry for another win but I'm going to take a little time to savor the moment with my great crew here on the Nollet Team."
It wasn't a "cake walk" for the veteran French driver as the number one boat was cruising along with a 31 lap advantage with less than hour to be run when it suffered mechanical difficulties and was forced to be towed back to the pits.
With time running out and their sister ship number two boat making up laps quickly, the crew was able to put together make shift repairs, enough to get the boat back on the course crossing the finish line at the end of the event and winning by six laps.
"I was really nervous at that point," said Philippe. "But our crew is so professional and we work on different scenarios just for these problems. We all worked together to get the boat back on the water and now I salute my whole team for another job well done."
For the defending three-time World Champion Alex Carella of Italy, who won with Chiappe a year ago in Rouen, this time around joining the New Star Team with most of his usual crew members from the F1 H2O Qatar Team, Alex didn't have the same luck as his old teammate. His boat failed to finish after a series of unfortunate problems including two broken propellers on day one followed by a teammate capsizing the boat after having a bad impact with a wave, thus ending their weekend.
"It's really disappointing." said Alex. "After our series of problems on day one we came out blazing the second day and were making up laps and moving up the sheets and then in a second, the boat capsized and we knew it was over. It was fun while it lasted and we felt we had a real shot of doing well overall. We'll see what next year brings."
Finishing fifth overall and third in the smaller Classe 2 category was Alex's teammate boat number 22 also put together by ten-time F1 H2O World Champion Guido Cappellini and his DAC Racing organization headed by longtime members Attilio Donzelli, Giacomo Curti and Alex Canzi.
Other notable UIM F1 H2O drivers past and present, saw Classe 2 participants Bartek Marszalek of Poland finishing ninth along with ex-F1 driver Stanislav Kourtsenovsky of Russia in the Balt Yacht Team.
Finally Duarte Benavente of Portugal who is currently third in the UIM F1 H2O championship with a podium in Doha, finished a disappointing 22nd with Team Privilege.
So, with the very unique 24 Hours of Rouen now in the record books the drivers can now focus back to the 2014 UIM F1 H2O campaign. You can follow all the updated UIM F1 H2O World Championship news by going to their official website at www.f1h2o.com.
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