In rough seas Italian Team Sony continued where they left off on Saturday and took the chequered flag to win round two of the 2005 UIM Powerboat P1 World Championship and the Portomaso Grand Prix of Malta. When the lead changed hands three times in the opening lap the writing was on the wall that this would be a thrilling race. The large crowds that lined the coastline were not to be disappointed as Sony fought off the early challenge of Italian crews Fainplast and OSG, in their Isotta Fraschini-powered 43-footer to dominate the race and Championship leader board.
Behind Sony, racing was fierce and spectacular with boats in both classes moving through the field to take podium places. The overtaking performance of the day came from the Wettpunkt.com team, who started at the rear of the Evolution field and carved their way through to challenge for the lead, eventually finishing in second place, just 30 seconds down after 56 nautical miles of hard racing.
This was the second win of the weekend for Team Sony, competing in the Powerboat P1 World Championship for the first time. They drove a faultless race at an average speed of 104.8kph in their new Fabio Buzzi-designed boat. Naples-based OSG finished third.
In the SuperSport class British team, Buzzi Bullet owned and piloted by Drew Langdon secured the win, with the Maltese brother and sister pairing of Aaron and Aurien Chantar of Team Chaudron finishing a close second, having led for more than half the race. In third place, B & B completed an excellent weekend in their new Yanmar-powered engine, with a second podium place and a class win in the Portomaso Grand Prix of Malta; awarded to the team with the highest aggregate points total from the weekend’s two races. Yesterday’s class winners, Offshore Performance Switzerland, were forced to retire with a broken drive shaft.
The Portomaso Grand Prix of Malta rounded off a very successful first event on the Powerboat P1 World Championship calendar; the next race takes place in Anzio, Italy from 10-12 June.
Team Chaudron had worked through the night to support three of the teams that had suffered difficulties inSaturday’s race. One of those was Buzzi Bullett who repaid the compliment of a new engine saddle by beating the Chaudron Team into second place.
Andrea Bergamini, navigator, Jolly Drive. SuperSport class winners of the Portomaso Grand Prix commented:
“We drove strategically today, looking for a finish to get the overall Grand Prix win. We had no problems today, we didn’t race at our maximum speed but we went fast enough to win overall. We started towards the back of the field with the aim of controlling the other competitors. Buzzi Bullet was much faster than us and Chaudron finished ahead but neither of them did well yesterday. We were shadowing the Swiss Offshore team and waiting to see how things would develop on the last lap, we were ready to make a big push but their drive shaft broke. “