Friday, December 19: A one-hour official free practice session at the Road to Sharjah–Grand Prix of Sharjah rounded off Friday afternoon’s timetable in a weakening wind and ideal race conditions on Khalid Lagoon.
The Victory Team’s championship leader Shaun Torrente topped the times to claim the overnight bragging rights with a fastest lap of 47.992 seconds. That was enough to edge Jonas Andersson by 0.338 seconds with the Swede’s team-mate Grant Trask classified in third.
Torrente was quick out of the blocks and the three-time World Champion posted that fastest run of 47.992sec on his opening tour. That was the first sub-48-second run of the day with the China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin and the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team’s Ferdinand Zandbergen running second and third, albeit over a second behind.
Bartek Marszalek ran a 49.33sec lap to move up to third in the standings with 47 minutes of the session remaining but six racers were yet to take to the water, including Andersson and Trask.
Torrente’s opening run still topped the times after 20 minutes, but Erik Stark and Alberto Comparato were yet to start their sessions when the yellow flag was raised after a turn buoy became dislodged. Andersson had just posted his opening lap of 49.724 seconds when action stopped.
Practice resumed with 37 minutes on the clock. Trask moved up to second with a lap of 49.090sec but Torrente remained the class of the field with his opening time. Andersson then displaced his team-mate with a 48.855sec flier as the two closest title rivals led the way in free practice.
Torrente sat out the remaining of the session but finished the day in confident mood ahead of a title-deciding two days on Khalid Lagoon. Andersson, Trask, Morin and Marszalek were his closest challengers in the practice standings, although Stark only joined the fray with 16 minutes remaining. The Team Abu Dhabi star posted a best lap of 49.552seconds that put him eighth in the standings.
Qualifying for the Road to Sharjah–Grand Prix of Sharjah will take centre stage on Khalid Lagoon from 09.30hrs on Saturday morning.
The weather forecast is favourable with sunny spells and temperatures beginning to climb into the low twenties Centigrade.
