Sunday, October 4: Competitive racing got underway for the third round of the 2026 UIM F1H2O World Championship at the Grand Prix of Shanghai-China, as drivers took part in qualifying sessions ahead of this afternoon’s Sprint Races.
Q1
Erik Stark achieved the best first lap with a time of 45.836 seconds, a time he then bettered on his 45.700 second third lap to remain on top early in the qualifying session. It took over six minutes of the twenty minute session for Stark to lose his place at the top, as current World Champion Shaun Torrente recorded a 45.489 second lap on his fourth time around the course. Stefan Arand then managed to record the session’s fastest lap on his thirteenth go, with a time of 45.362 seconds that proved unbeatable for the rest of the session.
The real battle, as usual, was at the other end of the field, where drivers pushed to enter the top twelve and therefore make it into Q2. With a few minutes left on the clock, Marit Stromoy, Rashed Al Qemzi, Duarte Benavente, Jonas Andersson, and Cédric Deguisne found themselves on the wrong side of the Q1 cutoff, as well as Bartek Marszalek who did not start the session after his boat flipped during the morning’s Free Practice session. Andersson, who won the Grand Prix in Shanghai last year, only managed to complete two laps before returning to the pontoon due to issues with his engine, giving himself an almighty challenge tomorrow to repeat his Grand Prix success in Shanghai.
On her sixteenth lap, Stromoy managed to move up to eleventh place, moving Rusty Wyatt into the red zone. With seconds left, Rashed Al Qemzi achieved his best time of the session with a 46.650 second lap, putting him in twelfth place and precariously above the drop zone, pushing Ben Jelf into thirteenth place. The British driver could not get a last lap in to regain his qualifying place though, so joined Wyatt, Benavente, Deguisne, Andersson, and Marszalek in not making it into Q2.
Q2
Torrente topped the initial standings at the beginning of Q2 with a time of 44.939 seconds, only to be displaced by fellow Victory Team driver Alec Weckstrom within seconds, who beat Torrente’s time by 0.265 seconds, and remained on top for the remainder of the session.
With little over eight minutes left, Al Qemzi’s Team Abu Dhabi boat came to a halt, making for a nerve wracking end of the session for the Emirati driver, who was then in fifth place, and soon after stopping dropped down to sixth following Grant Trask’s strong lap that moved the Australian up to third.
Entering the final third of the fifteen minute session, Brent Dillard, Alexandre Bourgeot, Stefan Hagin, Stromoy, Stark, and Alberto Comparato were in the bottom six and heading out of contention for Q3. Hagin left it late to get his strongest lap, which moved him up to sixth place and pushed Al Qemzi down into the drop zone. Then, with little over two minutes left, Al Qemzi was able to get his boat running again and immediately pushed to regain his top six position, but the Emirati fell short. His team mate Stark, who had initially topped the Q1 standings, left it late to try and move up from eleventh place, but his gamble failed as Stark only managed to move up into eighth with a time of 45.620 seconds. Comparato, Stark, Al Qemzi, Bourgeot, Dillard, and Stromoy therefore failed to make it into the day’s final qualifying session.
Q3
After topping Q2, Weckstrom was straight back in the lead in Q3 with the best opening lap of 44.180 seconds. Arand challenged for the top spot on his third lap, but only managed a time that was 0.309 seconds slower than Weckstrom’s, so the Sharjah Team driver moved up to second as Weckstrom maintained his top spot. Arand further cut down the deficit with Weckstrom in his next lap with a time of 44.321 seconds, but he was still short of Weckstrom’s rapid opening lap time.
Torrente took six laps to present a strong challenge to his team mate’s leading time, but still fell short by 0.013 seconds, displacing Arand in second place but still marginally behind Weckstrom. Following Torrente’s close challenge, Weckstrom further cemented his place at the top with a lap of 43.986 seconds, making him the first driver to achieve a lap below the 44 second mark so far this weekend. In doing so, he secured a career-first pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Torrente remained in second, with Arand pushed down into third, followed by Sami Selio, Trask, and Hagin.
