Friday, October 10: Team Sweden’s Jonas Andersson topped the times in the opening free practice session for the Grand Prix of Zhengzhou, China on the Yellow River on Friday morning. Chilly and cloudy conditions with a slight breeze greeted the 10 teams and 19 of the 20 drivers for the start of the first of three one-hour sessions.
The Sharjah Team’s Stefan Arand was the first to post a competitive time of 47.966sec, but that lap was soon eclipsed by a run of 47.218sec by the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team’s Sami Seliö. Andersson waded in with a 46.892sec flier in the opening five minutes to top the early times with 14 drivers already on the course.
Arand moved to the top of the standings just before the quarter-hour mark with a 46.34sec tour. The Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne and Alexandre Bourgeot and Kyle Maskall of the China CTIC Team were yet to take to the water but then Bourgeot opened his account with 44 minutes of the session remaining.
Andersson found a little more speed on his seventh lap and recorded the benchmark of 46.364sec to top the standings. The Swede was in the groove and he bettered his times with an impressive 45.527sec flier on his ninth tour of the Yellow River course shortly before the halfway mark.
Team Abu Dhabi Erik Stark also found some much needed pace and carded a lap of 46.613sec to slot in behind his fellow Swede. Stark then recorded a time of 46.231sec on his 26th lap but was still 0.703 seconds off Andersson’s early weekend pace. Maskall joined the fray with just over 20 minutes of the stint remaining.
Andersson’s team-mate Grant Trask had delivered a sensational debut in Shanghai last weekend and the Australian was up to speed again on Friday morning. A run of 46.425sec lifted him into third in the timings behind Andersson and Stark.
The China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin was also up to speed early and carded a 46.649sec run on his 19th lap before the yellow flag stopped the action with 15 minutes to run when a turn buoy became detached. Stark had also broken through the sub-46-second barrier with a run of 45.999sec. The green flag was raised with less than one minute of the session remaining.
