Andersson takes surprise win in Russia Grand Prix
'of the race, Center, 1st place Jonas Andersson of Sweden of of F1 Team Sweden, left Sami Selio of Finland of Woodstock Red Devil team, right, Fabio Comparato of Italy of 800 Doctor team on the Neva River in St Petersburg, Russia, venue of the UIM F1 powerboat Grand Prix, the 4th leg of the world championship series. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Idea Marketing.'
U.I.M. F1 World Championship ©
Swedish driver Jonas Andersson was in the right place at the right time and held on to take his second victory of the season to move within ten points of the championship lead of the 2008 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating at the 6th Grand Prix of Russia on the Neva River in front of tens of thousands of fans in downtown St. Petersburg.
The race was hi-lited by the two battle between pole sitter Guido Cappellini and third place starter Thani Al Qamzi as the Team Abu Dhabi star jumped into the lead past the native of Como, Italy on the opening lap and led until his boat stopped on the 40th lap handing the lead back to the nine-time World Champion.
Cappellini held the lead for just third laps until his engine expired on the front straightaway ending his dream of getting to within third points of the championship leader Jay Price of the Qatar Team who had dropped out himself with engine problems on the 14 lap while in sixth place.
Andersson found himself moving to the front and taking over the lead when the yellow flag came out forcing the final few laps to be run under yellow with Andersson finishing just ahead of World Champion Sami Selio of the Woodstock Red Devil Team as the Finnish driver earned his first podium finish of the season after four starts.
?I'm so excited for my team and the hard work they did for the past few days to get this boat ready,? said Jonas. ?Now we are within 10 points of Jay and are ready to focus during the summer reccess to charge our way to hopefully to our first title.?
Italian Fabio Comparato of the 800 Doctor Team earned his first podium in 16 races since Portugal of 2006 coming up from ninth starting position to take third and move to seventh on the championship table with 19 points.
Pierre Lundin of Sweden did another remarkable job of steady driving to take fourth after starting tenth and now is in sixth with 22 points in the championship. Finishing fifth was Philippe Dessertenne of France with the China CTIC Team with Australian driver David Trask of the Trask Brothers Racing Team coming home sixth. 
St. Petersburg native Stanislav Kourtsenovsky came home a strong seventh for his best result of the season in front of his cheering hometown crowd taking a victory lap after the event was over now 14th in the championship with nine points overall.
Finishing eighth was another Frenchman Philippe Chiappe now ninth in the championship with 15 points with Italian Marco Gambi earning his first points this season with his ninth place finish. Earning the final point was a disappointed Ahmad Al Hameli who's position moved him one point in front of Cappellini and Selio into third position with 28 on the season.
The grueling 50 lap event saw eight retirements in the 22 starters that began the Grand Prix.
The next event on the schedule is 108 days away in China as the U.I.M. F1 World Championship takes the summer break with the Olympics coming up and will head off to the Far East for the October 1st event and the fifth stop on the 2008 tour.
American Jay Price leads the championship but his fellow F2 friend Jonas Andersson is closing in with Ahmad Al Hameli, Guido Cappellini and Sami Selio in pursute. It's is looking like the 2008 campaign is shaping up to being a season to remember. 
by Steve Michael Reporting 
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