ABU DHABI – Tuesday, November 27, 2012 – For the first time in over a decade, four World Champions will be competing together at the 21st Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, the fifth and penultimate round of the UIM F1 World Championship Series taking place this Friday, the 30th of November.
The last time four champions raced against each other in one Grand Prix dates back to 2000 in Abu Dhabi when Italian Guido Cappellini battled against American Scott Gillman, Fabrizio Bocca of Italy and Jonathan Jones from Wales.
Gillman, would go on to win the title that afternoon, while Jones would officially retire from racing at the end of the day after a long and brilliant career. Cappellini would reach the podium while fellow Italian Francesco Cantando won the 2000 event. The driver from Milan will also be taking part in this years Grand Prix looking for his third victory in Abu Dhabi.
This very talented line-up of drivers that will be competing this year in the Emirates starts with Scott Gillman who is returning for his first race since Kazan of 2011. This event will mark only his second in four seasons trading in his Team Manager hat this time around for a racing helmet for Team Abu Dhabi.
Meanwhile, last years runner-up in the Championship, Jay Price of the USA, is returning for the first time this season driving for the Skydive Dubai Team hoping to put a “monkey wrench” in the title hopes of 2011 teammate Carella when they both raced for the Qatar Team.
Finnish star Sami Selio of the Mad Croc Team is still in the hunt for a title. This despite him getting tangled up into a restart accident at the last Grand Prix in China and failing to earn needed world championship points. His 41 are 18 behind Carella with two races and 40 total points still up in the air to be won.
Carella, now has to focus on French driver Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC China Team. Chiappe’s 48 points puts him squarely in as a challenger for his first world title with two races to be run. The advantage for Alex is he knows how to capture a title while Philippe searches for his first career victory in his 80th start.
All in all, the 21st running of the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi being run on the new race circuit across from the dynamic backdrop of downtown along the corniche will be something special with the largest field of drivers of the year in the line-up with four drivers being ex-World Champions representing eight different years of excellence.
Official qualifying will take place this Thursday the 29th at 15:00 local (11:00 GMT) and 06:00 EST on the East Coast of North America and the Grand Prix on Friday at 15:30 local time. Both can be followed live via the worldwide television feed by going to the series official website at www.f1h2o.com.
