When Sami Seliö and his Mad-Croc team arrived in Abu Dhabi they had one main objective and that was to tie up the 2010 Team Championship. Saturday that was met, when Seliö drove the perfect race never being headed for 36 laps, to take his second race win of the season.

“The team title was critical” said a delighted Seliö. “We now have a big enough gap over the Abu Dhabi team that even if neither Alex Carella or I don’t finish next week’s Grand Prix of Sharjah we have built enough a big enough points lead to claim the championship.”

Once again the heat in the cockpits was past the forty degree mark as the nineteen boats took to the start grid. As the lights went out three boats jumped the start, but had backed off before the main field reached the first turn. Coming out in front was Seliö, chased down by Jay Price from the Qatar Team;he in turn had two Abu Dhabi drivers pressing him, although Al Hameli would soon drop back with power steering problems.

As the race settled into a rhythm with Price closing the gap into the turns and Seliö pulling away down the straight all that was about to change as out came the yellow flags, quickly followed by the pace-boat, after Francesco Cantando from the Singha F1 Team had broken down on one of the turns.

“That came as big surprise to me” said Seliö “as we both went into the turn together, then he just stopped. I was scared that Price wouldn’t see him because he was slightly obscured by the turn buoy, but thankfully he managed to avoid the stricken Cantando.”

As the pace boat pulled off the circuit Seliö came under immense pressure from Price. “The restarts were very challenging” said Seliö “Before the race I had decided to use a big propeller which would give me top speed, but would mean that my acceleration would be compromised. It was a risk worth taking as I also didn’t want to put too much stress on the engine. Today the gamble paid off, now I just have to repeat today’s result and the drivers title will be mine by just one point.”

When Seliö was asked about whether he was worried about the heat, he said that he had the perfect training area, called a Finnish Sauna, which helped produce the perfect result.

Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi Result.

Pos:Boat:Driver:Nat:Team:Laps:Down:Points:

111SeliöFINTeam Mad-Croc3620

216PriceQATQatar Team361.6915

35Al QamziUAETeam Abu Dhabi369.6412

46Al HameliUAETeam Abu Dhabi3616.579

57ChiappeFRACTIC China Team3621.917

68LundinSWECTIC China Team3626.085

2010 UIM F1 Powerboat Drivers World Championship

Pos:Boat:Driver:Nat:Team:Points:

116Jay PriceQATQatar Team83

211SeliöFINTeam Mad-Croc79

35Al QamziUAETeam Abu Dhabi61

424CantandoITASingha F1 Racing59

512CarellaITATeam Mad-Croc59

66Al HameliUAETeam Abu Dhabi38

2010 UIM F1 Team Points World Championship

Pos:Team: Points:

1Team Mad-Croc138

2Team Abu Dhabi99

3Qatar Team90

4CTIC China Team64

5Singha F1 Racing59

6Team Azerbaijan23