After five Grands Prix and eight races, the fight for the coveted Class 1 World title has come down to the wire and will be decided next weekend, 10 -12 December, in the final two races of the season in the Emirates/Dubai Duty Free Dubai Grand Prix.
 
With the Victory Team having already secured a remarkable ninth Class 1 World title, the only unanswered question is which of the Dubai-based team’s two thoroughbreds will emerge victorious on their home waters and in front of a partisan crowd and lift the trophy - Fazza or Victory 1?

Just eight points separate Fazza and Victory 1 in what has been a titanic struggle for supremacy all season, with the Championship lead changing hands race-by-race.

Defending World Champion Jay Price of the Qatar Team scored his third victory of the season and his sixth of his career and moved himself back into the 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship picture with his 12.68 second victory at the 17th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in front of tens of thousands of race fans along the corneiche in front of downtown Abu Dhabi.

The American flew off at the start and moved past Finnish driver Sami Selio of the Mad Croc sponsored boat that had just set a new record of seven pole positions in one season, but as Selio was dropping back into third place with Guido Cappellini moving from third into second and charging.

Guido Cappellini of Italy of the Zepter team winner of race one, 2nd place Jay Price of USA and Sami Selio of Finland third of the UIM F1 Powerboat Grand Prix of Abu Dahbi, in the Corniche Breakwater, the race days are December 4-5, 2009. Picture by Vitorio Ubertone/Idea Marketing.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Friday, December 4, 2009 – Italian Guido Cappellini took advantage of Sami Selio's electrical problems and drove to the lead and never gave up winning by 1.14 seconds over Qatar Team driver Jay Price to win for the fourth time in his last five starts and move into first place in the U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship of power boating drivers standings at the 17th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi on the edge of the Arabian Sea Friday afternoon.

Finland's Sami Selio is on a special mission this weekend.

It begins when he puts his Mad Croc sponsored BABA boat in the water around the inner harbor of Abu Dhabi for Friday's 13th round of the 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship for power boating at the 17th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi.

What is this mission? The driver from Helsinki is hoping to start once again a string of pole position performances that he tied for with five straight including his four in China at Liuzhou and Shenzhen coupled with a number one place at the first of two Grand Prix's last weekend in Doha.

Montanari and Blue Shaft are looking to improve results in 2010#28 Blue Shaft throttleman Federico Montanari has vowed that his team will improve following a mixed 2009 season in the Powerboat P1 World Championship.

Montanari, partnered by fellow Italian Alfredo Zanardo, finished sixth in the SuperSport class last term, just ahead of family rival Alfredo Nuzzo in the #22 Big Sergio boat.

Reliability played an important role in Blue Shaft's triumph over their boat-mate: "The regulations in Powerboat P1 ensure that reliability as well as speed is rewarded in terms of points, and we certainly benefited from this, having finished 80 or 90% of the races."