As the 2014 season heads for a dramatic conclusion at the fifth and final round of the F1H2O World Championship, Sami Seliö, the number one driver in the Mad-Croc BaBa Racing Team ended the day in a very confident mood having qualified in fourth place for tomorrows Grand Prix.
– When you look back over the last fourteen years of racing around the Khalid Lagoon circuit, I have finished on the podium seven times, said the Finnish driver.
– On several of those occasions I was suffering with illness, so to go out there today with broken bones in my right hand; which happened during a recent trip to Helsinki and still put up a performance like that, shows people that even though my title prospects are over for another season I’m not about to relinquish the fact that I’m the most successful racer to ever compete here.
What made his fourth place even more remarkable was the fact that Selio is still a long way off too getting the full potential out of the latest BaBa raceboat. – We are still in the process of getting the propeller – boat balance set up correctly, he said.
– That’s proving to be a huge challenge and one that I got wrong in the ‘top-six shoot out’ when we ran with a prop that was way too small. Several times I could feel the boat flying through the air as I was over driving it.
At the conclusion of the ‘shoot-out’ it was the Frenchman Philippe Chiappe, racing for the CTIC China Team, who had posted the fastest lap time and it’s Chiappe that Seliö is tipping for the 2014 title.
– The Qatar Team is under so much pressure to deliver the title that I think they will fall at the final hurdle, just look what happened to Torrente today in qualifying. It should go to the driver that has worked the hardest all year and that person is Chiappe.
With Seliö’s team-mate Filip Roms qualifying just outside the top ten, the Mad-Croc Baba Racing Team are confident that they can maintain their third place in the 2014 Team Championship and you can see how they get on via the series web site www.f1h20.com
Result for the ‘Top Six Shoot-Out’ at the F1H2O Grand Prix of Sharjah:
1. Philippe Chiappe FRA CTIC China Team 44:33 sec
2. Alex Carella QAT Qatar Team 45:12 sec
3. Jonas Andersson SWE Team Sweden 45:55 sec
4. Sami Seliö FIN Mad-Croc Baba Racing 46:56 sec
5. Shaun Torrente USA Qatar Team 47:15 sec
6. Ahmed Al Hameli UAE Team Abu Dhabi 43:77 sec