Saturday, August 1:
Saturday, August 1: The first competitive on-water action of the Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan in Issyk-Kul was a grand ceremonious affair, as the packed crowds were addressed by His Excellency Sadyr Japarov, the President of Kyrgyzstan. The Qualification session then got underway in sunny and calm conditions following the signal of the President of Kyrgyzstan alongside UIM President Rafaelle Chiulli, H2O Founder Nicolò di San Germano, and the heads of state of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Q1
Grant Trask initially topped the table of eighteen drivers after securing the best opening lap with a time of 54.072 seconds, but he was soon outdone by fellow Team Sharjah driver Stefan Arand by the third lap, with the Estonian topping standings with a best lap of 52.187 seconds. Rusty Wyatt then concluded the Team Sharjah hat-trick of qualifying leads, after he topped the table following his fourth lap.
Team Sharjah’s reign at the top of the Q1 times was finally ended by current World Champion Shaun Torrente, whose time of 52.011 seconds saw the Victory Team driver take the top spot. By that point, the real battle was playing out at the other end of the table, as just minutes remained for drivers to reach the top 12 and qualify for Q2. Team Abu Dhabi duo Erik Stark and Rashed Al Qemzi were either side of the Q2 qualifying cut-off, in twelfth and thirteenth place respectively, until Stark found a rapid race pace that had until then been dormant, going from twelfth to first place with a lap time of 51.904 seconds. Ben Jelf made a last-gasp push for Q2, achieving his best lap time and overtaking Al Qemzi in the standings, but fell 0.081 seconds short of breaking into the Q2 places, finishing thirteenth.
Q2
Three-time World Champion Jonas Andersson came flying into Q2, topping the table following a 50.294 seconds opening lap. Andersson’s pace proved unbeatable, so once again the real tension was for the places to make it into the next round of qualifying. After an unconvincing start, Weckstrom was able to claw into sixth place with little over two minutes left, pushing Stefan Hagin into seventh place. Hagin had to push his boat to the limit on his final lap, where he reached speeds of over 160km/h, but he could not quite do enough to make Q3, as with Alberto Comparato whose best lap was his last, but still 0.127 seconds too slow to make the top six. Meanwhile Rusty Wyatt failed to start Q2, leaving him twelfth in qualifying.
Q3
It was an all-Emirati team affair in Q3, as Victory Team’s two drivers faced off against Grant Trask and Stefan Arand of Sharjah Team, and Team Abu Dhabi’s Swedish duo of Erik Stark and Jonas Andersson. Victory Team started strongest, with their driver Shaun Torrente achieving the best opening lap with a time of 49.890 seconds and Alec Weckstrom coming in second-place, 0.239 seconds behind Torrente. They were then outdone by Q2 leader Andersson on his fifth lap, who was able to get a best lap 0.472 seconds better than Torrente’s. Torrente retaliated with his fastest lap soon after, but it still fell short of Andersson who achieved an even better lap of 48.778 seconds.
None of the rest of the pack could come close to Andersson, who finished Q3 with a 0.738 second advantage over second-placed Torrente, who was followed by Weckstrom, Stark, Trask, and finally Arand.
