Tedeschi and Ciantar start with a win

There was home joy for Italy-based Conam Yachts team in yesterday's opening round of the 2008 Powerboat P1 championship - the Italian Grand Prix of the Sea in San Benedetto del Tronto.

The tandem of owner and throttleman Angelo Tedeschi and his new pilot Aaron Ciantar, formerly of Chaudron Portomaso, dominated the SuperSport event that got the racing weekend off to a start.

Tedeschi and Ciantar quickly opened a 30-second lead over their nearest rivals and extended that to 40s by the chequered flag.

"It's a good start for the season," Tedeschi said on the podium.

"To start well means we have an early advantage over the competition. The calm seas today weren't actually the best for our boat, but Aaron and myself worked well together. It is difficult to find a good relationship between pilot and throttleman, but I only said 10 words so it means we understand each other very well."

The VoomVoom.com crew of pilot Gareth Williams and throttleman Vahid Ganjavian finished second after a close tussle with the Silverline Buzzi Bullet of pilot Jan Falkowski and throttleman Drew Langdon.

"Second is a fantastic result to start the year with, and it's great to be on the podium for the first race of the season," Williams said.

"The boat was performing flawlessly."

The Buzzi Bullet crew had held second position in the early laps, but were caught out by the VoomVoom.com boat on lap three.

"We had some great dicing with the VoomVoom.com boat, but they just managed to get the slip on us," Falkowski said.