BRASILIA, Brazil - (1st of June, 2013) - Two time World Champion Sami Selio of the Mad Croc Team put his Italian built BABA hull into pole position for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Brazil opening the 2013 UIM F1 H2O World Championship for power boating on Lake Paranoa in the nations capital of Brasilia.
The driver from Helsinki, Finland beat out the pair of Qatar Team drivers of Shaun Torrente and two-time defending World Champion Alex Carella in his own drive for his third title with a 52.65 second effort.
"The race course was tough to conquer today with the wind and waves making it very challenging but we found the speed we needed and I'm excited about starting on pole, a great start to the season," said Sami.
One tenth of a second behind was the American Torrente who managed a 52.75 second lap, returning after seven months, missing the last two events a year ago because of being suspended by the UIM officials after he and Selio crashed out on a re-start at the Grand Prix of China.
"It's great to be back and our performance was what I had dreamed about," said the Miami driver. "OK I didn't earn pole but my teammate Alex and I are two-three off the dock tomorrow morning and the race is 32 laps so we'll have plenty of time to try and improve."
The two-time back to back World Champion Carella was quietly confident with his 53.02 which was less than three-tenths of a second from Selio. Swedish driver Jonas Andersson earned his fourth position with a 53.22 second lap showing that he continues to improve with his new Molgaard hull from Denmark.
Fifth quickest was Ahmed Al Hameli who has miraculously returned from a tumor discovered almost a year ago and getting into a boat for the first time since last summer running superbly was a 54.88 second lap for Team Abu Dhabi.
Francesco Cantando was the last driver to make it to the Q3 session and the top-6 shootout for pole position but failed to get his boat running after finishing sixth quickest with a 54.70 second lap in the Q2 session reaching the "shootout" for the 66th time in his 18 year career for the Singha Team.
Just missing the "shootout" was French driver Philippe Chiappe with a 54.71 second lap for the CTIC China Team having his biggest struggle to reach the top in his last 10 qualifying efforts.
Eighth off the dock tomorrow will be Italian Valerio Lagiannella with a 56.48 second lap in the second Singha Team boat marking his best qualifying effort of his career in reaching the top-10.
Thani Al Qamzi of Team Abu Dhabi who was third in last years championship and won the final event of 2012 fought getting his racing package right and had to settle for ninth marking his worst performance in qualifying in over a year and one-half.
Rounding out the top ten was Portugal's Duarte Benavente who with his 56.83 reached the top ten for the fourth time in his last seven starts for the Atlantic Team. With native Brazilian driver Paul Gaiser out of the Grand Prix because of a freak hand injury, Duarte will be the fans favorite being the only driver to speak Portuguese in the racing field for tomorrow mornings race.
The field of drivers from 11 different nations on three different continents will take to Lake Paranoa and the inaugural Grand Prix of Brazil for 32 laps as the UIM F1 H2O World Championship opens its season for 2013.
The race will be able to be followed by going to the official website at www.f1h2o.com with the live television broadcast feed being offered to people around the world.
The question will be this, can Sami Selio win for the first time since Kiev almost a year ago, or will it be the Qatar Team duo of Shaun Torrente winning his first or his teammate Alex Carella capturing his seven victory of his four year career in F1 H2O?
The Grand Prix of Brazil is scheduled to begin at 11:00 local and 14:00 GMT and 12:00 EDT on the East Coast of North America.
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