Saturday, August 23: Team Sweden’s defending World Champion Jonas Andersson stormed to a start-to-finish victory in the first of the Sprint races at the 3rd Grand Prix of Indonesia on Sumatra’s Lake Toba on Saturday morning.
The three-time champion cruised to a 13.167-second victory to open his account in the 2025 UIM F1H2O World Championship in perfect style. Last year’s race winner Rusty Wyatt finished a distant second in his Sharjah Team boat and Great Britain’s Ben Jelf held off the China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin to secure the final spot on the Sprint race podium.rus
Andersson said: “I was nervous for the start because Rusty is always fast and I have a new boat. It was good and it was enough to beat him to the first turn and after that it was very easy. I tried to push in the beginning and, when you have a gap of 10 seconds, it is difficult to focus. I go off the gas a little and keep the gap around 10 seconds and it was okay. A boat like this also does not run well when you go slow. The boat doesn’t handle if you don’t have full power.”
Young Estonian Stefan Arand finished fifth ahead of Bartek Marszalek of the Strømøy Racing F1H2O Team and two-time World Champion Sami Sëlio. Andersson’s team-mate Johan Österberg was eighth.
Dito Ariotedjo, Indonesia’s 14th Minister of Youth and Sports, had joined F1H2O staff and local officials at the pre-race driver’s briefing in Balige and took part in the parade lap with the Indonesian flag on Lake Toba.
Sprint Race 1 would be decided over 14 laps with Andersson on pole position from Wyatt, Jelf, Morin, Arand, Damon Cohen, Österberg, Marszalek, Sëlio and Cédric Deguisne.
Jelf admitted that he didn’t have enough fuel on Friday afternoon to complete more than one lap in Q3, but the Briton was delighted to line-up in third for the Sprint race. Sëlio was hoping to find more power and performance from his new Sharjah boat after a disappointing qualifying session that saw him down in ninth on the grid ahead of Deguisne, who had overcome his own water-related engine issue before the start.
Andersson had topped the times in the morning’s fourth free practice session with a lap of 57.016 seconds and the Swede maintained his lead from lights out to extend his lead from Wyatt, Jelf, Morin, Arand, Marszalek, Sëlio, Österberg, Cohen and Deguisne.
The World Champion extended his advantage to 6.728 seconds through lap two and 8.136 seconds into lap three, as Deguisne overtook a slowing and retiring Cohen to grab ninth.
Andersson’s lead had grown to 9.966 seconds into lap six and 11.408 seconds through lap eight. Wyatt had no answer to the Swede’s pace and he eased his pace and settled for second overall, with Andersson cruising to a comfortable win after lapping seventh-placed Sëlio on lap 12.
