Saturday, October 11: Defending three-time World Champion Jonas Andersson got the better of the Victory Team’s Alec Weckström in a ding-dong qualifying session to snatch a crucial pole position for the UIM F1H2O Grand Prix of Zhengzhou, China on Saturday morning.
Six of the fastest racers in the sport jostled for fractions of a second in a pulsating third qualifying session with Weckström looking to have sealed pole with a late run of 44.100sec. Team Sweden’s Andersson had other ideas, however, and a late stormer of 43.951sec gave the Swede his 16th career pole position and a useful lead in the F1H2O Pole Position Trophy.
Andersson said: “That was a tough one. We have been struggling all week to be fair. I was playing around too much yesterday, going from one boat to another and I didn’t understand completely the propeller choice. Maybe we were a little off but I was driving as fast as I could in Q3. The balance on the new boat is not perfect yet. We were flying all over the place. We need to work with that. If it had been windy, I am sure I would have been upside down. I am super happy for the boys who have worked hard. Now we go for the Sprint race. Hopefully, I can make a good start like I normally do. The boat is better in a race than qualifying.”
Weckström added: “It was nice fighting with Jonas again. I don’t know where he always finds one or two tenths (of a second) to beat us. It’s fun, it’s close. It’s nice that it’s more guys fighting at the top. It’s like the old days. I have pole for my Sprint race.”
Young Estonian Stefan Arand suffered a battery issue after the second qualifying session but sterling work by the Sharjah Team to replace the battery saw him out on the water in time to post a best lap of 44.401sec. That was sufficient for third place on the start pontoon and that lap also pushed Weckström’s team-mate Shaun Torrente down to fourth.
Arand said: “We had a bit of an electrical issue but the team managed to diagnose it while I was still on the water. They got it up and running and we got out there. It was a bit difficult going into Q3 with the pressure and everything being so hectic. But we managed to get a good lap. I’m not 100% content. I felt like I still had more out there. It was a challenge to get clean water.”
Team Sweden’s new recruit Grant Trask maintained the excellent turn of speed he showed in Shanghai last weekend to get the better of the Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt to qualify in fifth place with a run of 44.842sec.
Q1
Eight of the 20 racers would fall by the wayside in the opening 20-minute qualifying stint in chilly and gloomy conditions on the Yellow River. The China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin got a fast lap of 46.560sec in early to secure his progress, as did Team Sweden’s Grant Trask (46.839sec). Neither Jonas Andersson nor Shaun Torrente took to the water at speed in the opening five minutes, although Stefan Arand, Rusty Wyatt and Erik Stark had posted times that put them into the second qualifying session.
Andersson eventually recorded a run of 47.348sec to assure himself a place in Q2 and Torrente carded a 47.699sec run to progress, but Team Abu Dhabi’s Mansoor Al-Mansoori, the F1 Atlantic Team’s Duarte Benavente, the Maverick Racing duo of Cédric Deguisne and Alexandre Bourgeot, Marit Strømøy, the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team’s Ferdinand Zandbergen, Morin’s team-mate Kyle Maskall and Comparato F1 Team’s Damon Cohen missed the cut and were eliminated.
Arand eventually topped the session times with a 46.028sec run. Strømøy Racing’s Bartek Marszalek narrowly made it into Q2 in 12th place.
Q2
Six of the surviving 12 boats would be eliminated in the 15-minute Q2 session. Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark returned to the pit pontoon temporarily between the two sessions, as Morin was again out on the water at the very start of the stint and posted a 47.845sec target run in clean water. Alec Weckström stormed to the top of the rankings with a flying 45.900sec and teammate Torrente also ran well with a 46.588sec.
Andersson secured his place in Q3 with a 45.254sec flier but Arand trailed at the rear of the field in 12th position before carding a 45.922sec tour. Wyatt then set the fastest lap of the entire weekend (44.911sec) to top the rankings, but Sami Seliö, Ben Jelf, Alberto Comparato, Marszalek, Stark and Morin were eliminated. Andersson ran even quicker than Wyatt late on and topped the times with a late stormer of 44.837sec.
Q3
Andersson, Wyatt, Arand, Weckström, Torrente and Trask made it into the final 10-minute shoot-out for pole position but Arand suffered a battery issue and was towed back to the pontoon before the start of the final session. The battery was replaced on the pontoon and Arand was able to make qualifying on time.
Wyatt laid down the gauntlet with a lap of 45.354sec but that was surpassed by Andersson’s 45.001sec run. Weckström then rocked the establishment with a 44.849sec and Arand was also faster with a 44.933sec after a stunning start to the session.
Torrente stormed to the top of the rankings in calm racing conditions with a lap of 44.714sec to snatch provisional pole with less than six minutes to go. Andersson was not to be denied and the Swede ran even quicker with a 44.407sec and Weckström then ran faster than his team-mate Torrente and moved up to second heading into the last three minutes. The Finn then ran even faster with a 44.311sec stormer and displaced Andersson to snatch pole.
But Andersson dug deep and ran a 43.951sec lap in the last minute to grab pole from Weckström, Arand, Torrente, Trask and Wyatt.
The two Sprint races fire into life at 14.05hrs (GMT+8) and 14.45hrs today.
