DOHA, Qatar – Saturday, November 27, 2010 – Qatar Team driver Jay Price led from start to finish winning by 4.42 seconds at his home Grand Prix and has now moved into first place in the UIM F1 H2O World Championship for powerboating at the Eighth Grand Prix of Qatar in front of tens of thousands of fans along the corniche on the edge of the Persian Gulf in Doha Bay.
“We had a perfect setup today and we got the start we were hoping for and from there it was just a matter of holding off the competition,” said Jay. “I almost lost it at one point halfway through the event but was able to save it and continue on without losing much ground. Now we are feeling confident that if we just keep up the pressure we have a good shot at winning the title for the second time.”
While the American driver was pushing his way to his second win of the season and the ninth of his career, he was pushed to the limit by Finnish star Sami Selio as the 2007 World Champion got within a second and one-half with five laps to go in the 35 lap event only to lose ground thru traffic in the final moments of the race.
“We're happy with what we did today,” said Selio. “We now have gone from being down 15 points to nine and have gone from fourth to second in the championship with my teammate Alex Carella and fell strongly about the next two races that I have won before.”
Carella, a strong rookie-of-the-year candidate earning his third podium of the season, stayed in perfect formation with his veteran teammate finishing 6.79 seconds back at the end while holding off a determined Ahmad Al Hameli of Team Abu Dhabi who came charging up from his 16th starting position to take fourth 7.93 seconds back at the end of the drive of the day.
German driver Fabian Kalsow finished a great weekend of racing by qualifying his career best sixth and following it up with a fifth in the Grand Prix for the F1 Atlantic Team. Taking sixth charging up 12 places from the start was Team Abu Dhabi driver Thani Al Qamzi staying in within a shout of the championship as the series heads to his home country to the final two events.
Rookie driver Davide Padovan of the Rainbow Team had his fourth top 10 finish of the season taking seventh after starting in the 14th position at the start. Portugal veteran Duarte Benavente was eighth after charging up from the 15th position at the start of the grid in his Dragon boat.
French driver Philippe Chiappe started 17th and came home in ninth picking up a pair of points for the CTIC China Team, while rounding out the top 10 was Italian driver Fabio Comparato in the 800 Doctor sponsored boat coming out of a sick bed and starting 19th taking the final point of the day.
Francesco Cantando of the Singha F1 Racing Team who came in leading the drivers points championship lasted only a few seconds into the first lap crashing out by getting washed down by the spray of Sami Selio's BABA boat and blowing over in spectacular fashion and not injuring himself but damaging his BLAZE boat and dropping out of the lead in the title chase.
Jay Price now leads the championship with two races to go with 68 points. Three drivers Sami Selio, Alex Carella and Cantando all caught up with 59 points in second place and Thani Al Qamzi sitting with 49 marking the first time that three different drivers had been tied for second this late in the season.
The UIM F1 H2O World Championship for powerboating heads off to the seventh race of the 2010 season next weekend for the 19th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on the 4th of December in a race that has a history to it going back to 1993. Jay Price now is back in the lead for the title and is his to lose with two events to be run. Anything can happen and the championship looks once again to be going down to the final few moments once again this season.
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