Thursday, November 27: The Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente carded the quickest lap of 42.241 seconds on his first run in the second of Thursday afternoon’s free practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
In the punishing heat of an afternoon at the North Obhur Waterfront on the Red Sea, the second one-hour stint followed after a 30-minute gap and Torrente was first on to the circuit. The Florida-based racer carded an opening tour of 42.241 seconds – the fastest lap of the weekend thus far – in ideal water conditions.
Only the Red Devil-SMC Team’s two-time champion Sami Seliö followed the American into action in the opening nine minutes and carded a best run of 44.702sec before being edged out by team-mate Ferdinand Zandbergen (44.032sec) on the 10-minute mark.
The China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin was also up to speed early in the session with just five boats posting laps in the opening 15 minutes. Morin’s new stand-in team-mate, the German rookie Stefan Hagin, started his F1H2O career with three cautious laps as the clock ticked down to the 40-minute mark. He later clocked a useful run of 44.624 seconds during his 12 laps.
The F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf began his second practice stint strongly with an opening lap of 44.304sec but Torrente’s opening flier still topped the times with 36 minutes remaining and 12 drivers yet to record a lap time.
Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne and Alexandre Bourgeot joined the fray soon afterwards and series leader Alec Weckström took to the course on the half-hour mark and opened his account with a best early run of 45.037sec. Defending champion Jonas Andersson left it until the second half of the stint to post a lap time and the Swede started with three cautious tours of the circuit before stopping after four laps. He went on to complete just seven laps.
Two-thirds of the way through the stint and seven drivers were yet to take to the water. Torrente’s opening run remained the benchmark with Morin, Seliö, Zandbergen, Jelf, Stefan Arand and Weckström classified behind the American. Weckström found some extra speed in the later part of the session and a run of 43.530sec lifted the Finn up to fourth behind Torrente, Morin and Seliö.
The Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt and Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark were conspicuous by their absence from the timings in session two. But Stark did take to the water with less than seven minutes on the clock, opened his account with a 45.024sec run, improved with a 44.506sec tour and moved up to fourth at the expense of Weckström with a best lap of 43.222sec before a yellow flag stopped the session with three minutes to run. Damon Cohen, Marit Strømøy, Bartek Marszalek, Alberto Comparato and Grant Trask did not take part.
The all-important three qualifying sessions are scheduled for 10.00hrs (local time) on Friday morning.
