KYIV, Ukraine - (Saturday, 27th of July, 2013) - It took more than a day but qualifying and the battle for pole position on the Kyiv Sea has for the second straight year has gone to Finland's Sami Selio who put his BABA hull in the number one position for his 21st time in his career and the second time in the 2013 UIM F1 H2O World Championship campaign.
The 38 year-old driver from Helsinki went around the six-pin 2.35 kilometer circuit in a time of a 45.52 for a speed of 165.72 kph for the Mad Croc Racing Team which was .83 of a second quicker than French driver Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC Team who in his revised MOORE hull managed a 46.39 to take his third career second place qualifier.
"The boat feels just right for this course," said Selio. "We continue to fine tune the problems we've had in the past and for me to nail down my second straight pole in two years, I really enjoy this circuit and the surroundings that go with it, just great!"
Starting third will be American driver Shaun Torrente who put in a 46.45 second time and a speed of 162.62 kph just six one-hundreths of a second behind Chiappe and almost a second quicker than his Italian teammate Alex Carella who will start fourth here for the Qatar Team duo.
Fifth will be Thani Al Qamzi of Team Abu Dhabi who ran a 48.09 and a speed of 157.21 kph, with Youssef Al Rubayan from Kuwait coming up with a 49.23 second lap being the final driver into the top-six shootout.
Seventh was Jonas Andersson of Team Azerbaijan who did a 50.53 while Portugal's Duarte Benavente was eighth in his Atlantic Team BABA with a 51.45.
Rounding out the top ten was veteran Italian Francesco Cantando with a 51.46 in his BLAZE boat and Ahmed Al Hameli of Team Abu Dhabi who won this race two years ago taking the final top ten time with a 51.96.
Seventeen drivers from 12 different countries are set to take the start at the Third Annual Grand Prix of Ukraine at 18:00 local (15:00 GMT) and 11:00 EDT in North America for the second round of the 2013 UIM F1 H2O World Championship.
The race can be followed live via the series internet site at www.f1h2o.com via the world television broadcast feed.
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