Sunday, October 12: The Victory Team’s Alec Weckström created his own little piece of history by sealing a maiden victory with a stunning drive in a thrilling UIM F1H2O Grand Prix of Zhengzhou, China on Sunday morning.
The flying Finn overhauled pole-sitter and championship leader Jonas Andersson on the sprint to the first turn buoy and then fended off a fierce challenge from his team-mate Shaun Torrente to confirm victory by 3.910 seconds. The success marked Weckström’s fourth podium finish in 12 race starts and lifts him into a seven-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
Weckström said: “Amazing, feels like a dream. I can’t believe I have my first race win and a 1-2 for the team. I am really proud for the whole team. They worked so well this weekend. We were fine with the pace. I just had to manage it. I didn’t want to flip because then you get zero points. I knew where Shaun was and I was managing the gap all the time.”
Early season leader Rusty Wyatt shadowed Torrente to the finish to take the final podium place for the Sharjah Team. Those precious points enabled the Canadian to hold third in the Drivers’ Championship, just a point behind Torrente with two rounds to go. The Victory Team’s 1-2 finish saw them extend their lead to 30 points over the Sharjah Team and 43 points over Team Sweden in the UIM Teams’ Championship.
Torrente said: “Oh man, what a day. That was amazing. I had an amazing start. The first five laps I was quicker than him (Alec) but he had the position. I could manage Rusty (Wyatt). I have been around a while. This isn’t about me winning the World Championship. It’s about the team. Two boats at the front. We are not the quickest but we are the most consistent. Show up in Sharjah with the chance of winning the world championship is the goal. It’s happened six times and I have won three of them.”
Wyatt added: “It was a great start. We got off the dock really well. We have been struggling with that. I would get Shaun on the turns and he would lose me on the straights. Overall, a great day and I am happy to come home in third. The gap was pretty much the same all the time. We came into lap traffic and I thought I could make a move. We had some issues with the boat this weekend and I am happy to put on a performance today and pick up a podium.”
Defending three-time World Champion Jonas Andersson never recovered from his opening lap disaster and withdrew from seventh place with engine issues on lap 24.That crucial retirement has pushed the Team Sweden star down to fourth in the Drivers’ Championship and, with team-mate Grant Trask also failing to finish, it was an expensive weekend for Team Sweden.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark started the race in ninth and managed to finish fourth with the China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin and Wyatt’s team-mate Stefan Arand rounding off the top six.
It was a strong weekend for the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team duo of Sami Seliö and Ferdinand Zandbergen: they finished seventh and eighth in the new Sharjah-designed boats. The Comparato F1 Team’s Damon Cohen picked up two points for finishing ninth and Morin’s team-mate Kyle Maskall rounded off the top 10 on his second Grand Prix start.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Mansoor Al-Mansoori, Portuguese veteran Duarte Benavente and the Maverick Racing duo of Alexandre Bourgeot and Cédric Deguisne finished outside the points in 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th.
The race
Engine changes for the F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf and Maverick Racing’s Alexandre Bourgeot meant that they started in 19th and 20th positions for the 36-lap race on the Yellow River circuit.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark had worked on the balance of the boat when he topped the times with a lap of 45.000sec in the morning’s warm-up session and he lined up in ninth place. With the exception of Rusty Wyatt, 19 of the drivers used the warm-up stint for any last-minute set-up changes and both Arand and Marit Strømøyperformed well with competitive times.
Out front, Andersson had pole from Weckström, Arand, Torrente and Trask with Arand overcoming an electrical issue that had been expensive before the Sprint race on Saturday. After overnight rain, mist and drizzle greeted the 20 drivers from 13 nations to the chilly start in a strengthening breeze.
Weckström and Torrente made a superb start to pinch Andersson into the first turn buoy and the Victory Team boats moved into the lead with Wyatt, a flying Stark and Morin moving into third, fourth and fifth. Andersson plummeted down to eighth at the end of the dramatic opening lap and faced a fight back through the field. Strømøy failed to start.
By lap four, Weckström had a 2.334-second lead over his team-mate with Wyatt challenging hard from Stark and Morin. Trask and Arand settled into sixth and seventh with Andersson remaining in eighth ahead of Seliö and Bartek Marszalek. Jelf was moving up well and had climbed to 14th by lap six.
Trask lost power on lap seven, plummeted out of contention and soon joined Alberto Comparato on the list of retirements: the Italian had suffered engine issues during the morning and pulled out after three laps. The Australian’s demise lifted Andersson into seventh and then Marszalek withdrew after 13 laps with his own engine issues.
Weckström led Torrente by 3.630 seconds after lap 15 but there were no changes in the top eight as the rain continued to fall in a blustery wind. Torrente trimmed Weckström’s lead to 1.597 seconds at the halfway point but was also coming under pressure himself from Wyatt. Stark retained fourth, Morin was a solid fifth and Arand continued to fend off seventh-placed Andersson. Jelf’s progress through the field ended on lap 18 when the Briton pulled out of the race with boat handling issues.
Former karting supremo Weckström, Torrente and Wyatt continued to lead the way into lap 26, as the leaders moved through the back markers with Maskall the latest to be lapped by the leading trio. The traffic enabled Stark to close the gap slightly on the leading trio, but the title race took a dramatic turn when Andersson ground to a halt off the circuit with an engine failure after 24 laps. His demise lifted Seliö into seventh and his team-mate Zandbergen into eighth.
There was no stopping Weckström, however, and the flying Finn held on to seal his maiden Grand Prix victory with a winning margin of 3.910 seconds over Torrente. Wyatt rounded off the podium places to keep his title hopes alive, Stark finished fourth and Morin was fifth. Young Arand, Seliö, Zandbergen, Cohen and Maskall rounded off the top 10.
