Istanbul Grand Prix – POLE POSITION
POLLI AND PHARAON REIGN SUPREME
Italian Edoardo Polli and Saudi Arabia’s Laith Pharaon proved once again that they are the undisputed ‘kings’ of Pole Position after taking their fourth straight win of the 1998 U.I.M. Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
Polli and defending World Champion Pharaon shrugged off the burden of pre-pole favourites to steer Bilba – a 45ft Seatek powered catamaran - over the timed kilometer in 13.90 seconds at an average speed of 246.04km/h.
In second place were the Anglo-Norwegian pairing of Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis in Spirit of Norway with the all Arabian crew of Khalfan Harib and Mohamed Al Gaith in Victory 4 in third. Whilst making a marked improvement to their overall performances so far this year were Ken Thorne and Matteo Nicolini in Caesar Marine in fourth place.
1ST Edoardo Polli (Italy) & Laith Pharaon (Saudi Arabia) – Bilba
13.900 seconds. Top speed 246.04 km/h
Edoardo Polli – "I think most people will agree, that to win every Pole Position this year is quite an achievement. We’ve proved we have the speed and now we hope for the reliability. We have made some small improvements to our gearbox since Arendal and I am confident that we can carry our performance in Pole Position through to the race. The last part of today’s course was a bit choppy but on the whole was good fun."
2nd Bjorn Gjelsten (Norway) & Steve Curtis (UK) - Spirit of Norway
14.353 seconds. Top speed 238.28 km/h
Bjorn Gjelsten – "I am delighted with our result today making all the work carried out during testing worthwhile. We have made some minor improvements to the overall attitude of the boat, mainly the steering and handling. Today’s Pole Position was quite tough as there were more cross winds than we had anticipated. Istanbul is a great setting for tomorrow’s race as the Bosphorus provides a very challenging tight course. Everyone will need to adopt a degree of common sense."
3rd Khalfan Harib (UAE) & Mohamed Al-Gaith (UAE) – Victory 4
14.864 seconds. Top speed 230.09 km/h
Mohamed Al-Gaith – "We are very pleased with the performance of our new boat on only its second competitive event. But we realise that we haven’t achieved its full potential. Immediately after the race in Arendal we changed the rudder and since arriving here in Istanbul on Thursday we have carried out extensive testing. Today’s speed was down to the right propeller choice."