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ourteen year racing veteran Philippe
Chiappe cut a swathe of nothing but
success in the back-to-back two race
Grand Prix “Chinese tour” of the 2016
UIM F1H2O World Championship in
early fall, capturing a well-earned third
place finish in Harbin, following that
up with a second place performance
a few weeks later, giving the CTIC F1
Shenzhen China Team driver a 13 point lead in the
drivers’ championship with just two races to run.
The 52-year-old, who has now competed in 102
F1H2O Grand Prix, has a pair of victories and two
podium finishes in the four races he’s completed this
season, has now set himself as the odds on favorite to
win a third straight world title in the Emirates by mid-
December.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the driver from Rouen
this year in China however.
To say the least, he truly faced a huge challenge,
especially in the early September round at the first ever
Grand Prix of Harbin in northern China. A technical
problem in qualifying saw him fail to get out of the Q1
qualifying session, forcing him to start way back in the
15th grid position. “It turned out to be an electrical
problem that caused our trim to quit working,” said
Chiappe. “We worked on it as quickly as we could but
couldn’t solve it in time and were forced to start way
in the back for the race. I will say I truly earned the
podium spot in Harbin pushing as hard as I could on
a very warm day. My physical training paid for itself
during those hard fought 60 laps of racing.”
The likeable Frenchman stretched his lead in the
championship when three-time world title holder Alex
Carella of Team Abu Dhabi fell out of first place in the
championship crashing in a big way fighting for second
place in Harbin with young Finnish driver Filip Roms,
who was up to that point, having his best racing day of
his short four year career.
Carella became an unwanted spectator, watching
Roms’ teammate veteran driver Sami Selio win for
the first time all season for the Mad Croc Baba Racing
Team.
F1H2O
F
16
n° 4December | 2016