Friday, August 22: A lap of 55.995 seconds was sufficient for Team Sweden’s three-time World Champion Jonas Andersson to snatch pole position in breezy conditions after a pulsating qualifying session for the 3rd Grand Prix of Indonesia on Sumatra’s Lake Toba on Friday morning.
Just 0.684 seconds separated the leading four drivers in the first qualifying session of the 2025 UIM F1H2O World Championship in Balige. Andersson held the early lead in Q3 before losing that advantage to the Victory Team duo of Alec Weckström and Shaun Torrente. But a storming fastest lap of 55.995 seconds gave the Swede a 15th career pole position, with Weckström and Torrente qualifying in second and third with fastest laps of 56.190sec and 56.454sec respectively.
Andersson said: “It has been a superb day. From the beginning, we were very fast. I have a new boat for this race. It worked fantastic and the team have been working non-stop since we arrived here. Everything was working great and, at the end of Q3, I had a good lap and broke some small things in the boat. Then I heard from Jane (Persson) that they (Alec and Shaun) were very close and I had to push. I could not get a better time because I have some small issues. We are here and we are on the top, so I am really happy.”
Canada’s Rusty Wyatt won last year’s event in Indonesia but the Sharjah Team driver will need to challenge for honours from fourth position on the start pontoon after carding a best lap of 56.680sec.
Great Britain’s Ben Jelf continues to make rapid progress through the ranks. The F1 Atlantic Team driver was only able to complete one lap in Q3 but that was sufficient to earn fifth position on the start pontoon. Norwegian racer Marit Strømøy took a major step forward with the development of the four-stroke V8 360 APX Mercury engine by reaching Q3 and qualifying her DAC in sixth place.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark and the China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin qualified just outside the top six in seventh and eighth. The 2023 race winner Bartek Marszalek of the Strømøy Racing F1H2O Team and two-time World Champion Sami Sëlio were both eliminated during the opening qualifying session and will start the race from 16thand 17th positions.
Q1
Eight of the 20 drivers would be eliminated in the first of the qualifying sessions. It was crucial that the front-runners got a quick lap in early in cleaner water to take the pressure off having to qualify in the closing stages. The session was yellow-flagged twice early on because of a timing issue after Rusty Wyatt had carded the quickest early lap of 1min 01.130sec to lead the way from Peter Morin.
Racing resumed soon afterwards and Erik Stark moved up to second behind last year’s race winner with 20 minutes reinstated on the clock. Andersson was late out on to the water but the Swedish driver was not to be denied and he stormed to the top of the leaderboard with a solitary lap of 59.324 seconds. Damon Cohen of the Comparato F1 Team had just started the session when the yellow flag was briefly raised again.
The clock was reset and Q1 resumed with 10min 48sec remaining. Andersson continued to lead from Wyatt, Morin and Marit Strømøy but attention switched to the rear of the field and those drivers facing elimination from Q1. Team Abu Dhabi’s rookie Mansoor Al-Mansoori, Johan Österberg, Marszalek, Ferdinand Zandbergen, Alexandre Bourgeot, Sëlio, Duarte Benavente and Cédric Deguisne failed to make Q2. Andersson topped the session from Alec Weckström, Wyatt, Shaun Torrente and Ben Jelf.
Q2
A further six boats would fall short in the second 15-minute qualifying stint with the fastest six moving on to Q3. Alberto Comparato experienced a pickle fork issue and was late onto the water, but there was no stopping Andersson and the Swede kicked off with a 58.130sec run to hit the front, ahead of Wyatt, Stark, Strømøy, Morin and Jelf, who all ran a sub one-minute lap.
Wyatt then moved ahead of Andersson with 12 minutes of the session to run, but the World Champion hit back to regain the top spot with a lap of 57.180sec run. Australian rookie Damon Cohen, Grant Trask, Alberto Comparato, Stefan Arand, Peter Morin and Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark were eliminated with the latter pulling out before the end of the session.
Q3
Andersson, Wyatt, Weckström, Strømøy, Torrente and Jelf made the final six-boat shoot-out, but a swirling wind was strengthening before the start of the final 10-minute session. After a short delay while a moving turn buoy was repositioned in deep water, Andersson laid down the gauntlet with a lap of 57.262sec to grab provisional pole. Weckström responded with a 57.503sec to snatch second place and Jelf held off Torrente to grab third with a 57.584sec flier.
Wyatt moved into second with a 57.276sec tour and the six drivers held station with Strømøy in sixth with five minutes remaining on the clock. Both Andersson and Wyatt improved their times at the front of the field but Andersson delivered a stunning time of 56.490sec. But the drama was only just beginning and both Weckström and Torrente ran even quicker than the World Champion, only for Andersson to respond again with a lap of 55.995sec.
Two minutes remained on the clock and Andersson’s flier was enough to seal pole position from Weckström, Torrente, Wyatt, Jelf and Strømøy after a thrilling Q3 session.
Sprint race one fires into life at 11.10hrs on Saturday morning and the second one gets underway at 11.40hrs.
