ABU DHABI - (Friday, 21 November) - French driver Philippe Chiappe led from start to finish capturing his first win of the season and the second of his career on the UIM F1 H2O World Championship tour, moving into first place in the drivers championship at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, in front of thousands of race fans along the picturesque corniche in downtown Abu Dhabi.

The CTIC China Team pilot held off 17 other drivers including Shaun Torrente of the Qatar Team who finished second by 6.57 seconds while gaining the maximum 20 points with the victory.

Philippe now heads the drivers championship by three points 50-47 over a very unhappy Alex Carella of the Qatar Team who came home fifth and saw his chances of winning his fourth straight world title in jeopardy with one race to go in Sharjah on the 18^th and 19^th of December while his teammate Torrente now sits third with 44.

"We had a wild day," said Philippe. "We thought this morning that our engine had a real problem since we couldn't get more than seven thousand rpm's out of it. We had to do a lot of creative things to get everything in order for the start and even then I wasn't 100 percent sure it was perfect. But in the end, it was."

"Now we go to the final race with the lead in the championship and we have to stay at the top of our game in order to stop the two Qatar Team boats in Shaun and Alex or otherwise our dreams won't be fulfilled."

Meanwhile, for Torrente, he has a lot of positive hopes after losing the battle to his teammate last year at the final event.

"We are so excited that we are just six points back and will push to the max to make sure we have a say in the title this year," said the driver from Miami. "Remember we were 32 points back a week ago and now we are six, so we are coming."

For Alex, he's trying to find his swagger that he held early in the season that marched him to two straight victories in a row in Doha and Liuzhou in China.

"It's rough," said the 29 year-old. "We kind of lost our place and now we are looking to get our "mojo" back. I think we will have it back by the time we get to Sharjah. The race has happy memories for me so I think we will make our mark there again this season."

Team Abu Dhabi had a great afternoon with Ahmed Al Hameli reaching the podium in third place and getting most of the attention from the thousands that cheered him both on the water and after the race on the podium afterwards. His teammate Thani Al Qamzi finished in ninth place picking up two championship points.

Fourth and now out of the championship is last years race winner Sami Selio who climbed from sixth to fourth just missing the podium in his Mad Croc Baba Racing boat having reached the podium just once this season and looking for more speed.

Veteran Italian Francesco Cantando came home sixth after qualifying seventh in his 18^th start in Abu Dhabi for the past two-time winner in his Motorglass F1 sponsored machine.

Norwegian Marit Stromoy of Team Nautica, who started ninth, finished seventh just ahead of her rookie teammate Erik Stark, who got caught up on the opening corner and was forced back to mid-pack where he ended his day with three championship points.

Polish diver Bartek Marszalek climbed up to tenth taking the final point for team Motorglass F1.

With the victory Philippe Chiappe now controls his own destiny as the tour heads to the fifth and final race of the 2014 campaign on the UIM F1 H2O World Championship on the 18^th and 19^th of December on the Khalid Lagoon in lovely and colorful Emirate of Sharjah for the 15^th year.

For all the up to date news of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship tour you can follow it by going to their official website at www.f1h2o.com.