Team Azerbaijan proved for the second time this season that they will are going to be a serious factor in the World Championship of the U.I.M. F1 H2O power boating racing series as their two drivers came home second and ninth in the 38 lap event in front of tens of thousands of race fans in downtown Lahti in Southern Finland at today's 5th Grand Prix of Finland.
Jonas Andersson, the teams number one driver and many time F2 World Champion, came within less than four seconds of scoring his third career victory as he challenged nine-time World Champion Guido Cappellini of Italy to the final corner in his DAC Italian built boat around the five pin 2.0 kilometer race course on Lake Verjivis.
'We had a great package today and I felt that it was going to be something special after I went from fourth on the grid to second on the first lap while working around world champion Jay Price and then taking up the chase on Guido,' said Jonas. 'The Team Azerbaijan boat was really hooked up and I could drive it anywhere I needed to despite getting some damage on the right side after brushing with Jay on the very first corner of the race. Now, we new confidence and 2nd in the championship we will be ready to fight for the win tomorrow afternoon.'
Jonas was caught in a three way battle for the lead all race long with Italian Fabio Comparato in his mirrors the whole time until the native of Fruvi, Sweden was able to pull away at the final moments of the race to secure 15 more points now holding down 29 and moving up to second in the drivers championship behind Thai Al Qamzi of Team Abu Dhabi who with his fourth position today leads the chase with 38 points.
The other member of Team Azerbaijan Marit Stromoy continued here fine driving in 2009 as the driver from Norway took her third straight top-10 finish with a well earned ninth and now sits ninth in the title with nine total points.
'I was pleased with what we did,' said Marit. 'We fought hard today and their was a good battle between a few pilots that made the experience a memorable one. All in all, I think we can do it again tomorrow and am looking forward to doing even better for the team.'
Team Azerbaijan will continue to have both drivers on hand with tomorrow's fourth round of the championship at the 5th Grand Prix of Finland starting at 15:00 local, 13:00 GMT and 8:00 EDT in the Eastern North American time zone. The question remains, can tomorrow be the day that Jonas gets his first opportunity of the season to move into first place in the championship. We are less than 24 hours from finding out!
Cape Leeuwin, WA
