Saturday, December 20: Three-time defending World Champion Jonas Andersson secured a vital pole position after a dramatic qualifying session for the Road to Sharjah-Grand Prix of Sharjah on Saturday morning.
Needing to overcome a 14-point deficit to the Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente if he is to win the UIM F1H2O World Championship title for a fourth time, the Swede posted a fastest lap of 47.191 seconds to win the Q3 session by 0.119 seconds from Torrente’s team-mate Alec Weckström. Torrente qualified in third and will face his team-mate in the afternoon’s second Sprint race.
Not only will pole give the Swede an advantage at lights out for Sunday’s Grand Prix but it also enabled him to secure a 17th career pole and retain the F1H2O Pole Position Trophy from Torrente and Weckström and take the trophy for a fifth time since 2019.
Andersson said: “It was really tricky. When you have two boats, like I have, you chose one and then you realise it may not have been the right decision. We took the pole and the boat worked fantastic. We broke two of our best propellers in qualifying so the one I put on was just a chance and it worked out. Yesterday, we broke one engine and had a problem with another engine and we built one last night in the container and it seemed to work well!”
Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark qualified his DAC in fourth place with Strømøy Racing’s Bartek Marszalek settling into fifth after fuel surge issues deprived Team Sweden’s Grant Trask of more than two laps on the water in Q3. He qualified in sixth.
Q1
Eight of the 20 racers faced elimination in the opening 20-minute qualifying session. Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark opted to race his older DAC with full support from his team and the Sharjah Team’s Stefan Arand overcame delamination issues on his new Sharjah-built boat that were discovered when equipment arrived from Jeddah.
With only Shaun Torrente breaking the sub-48-second barrier in free practice, several drivers needed to play catch up and quickly for qualifying. Rusty Wyatt was using his new Sharjah boat for the first time in place of his customary DAC.
Trask was out early and posted the target time of 49.986sec, although Marszalek soon moved ahead with a 49.493sec run. A returning Brent Dillard started well and settled into seventh position with all but defending champion Andersson on the water with 15 minutes of the session remaining. Torrente provisionally booked his place in Q2 with a 49.741sec lap, as Andersson took to the water for the first time and moved up to ninth.
With nine minutes left, Morin topped the standings with a 46.763sec flier (later cancelled) and led from Marszalek, Torrente, Trask, Stark and Wyatt. Andersson improved with a 49.828sec lap to book his place in Q2 but there were several drivers nervously jostling to make the top 12.
Double world champion Sami Seliö ground to a halt with technical issues with three minutes on the clock and was joined on the list of non-qualifiers by the Maverick Team duo of Cédric Deguisne and Alexandre Bourgeot, Duarte Benavente, Team Abu Dhabi’s Mansoor Al-Mansoori, Damon Cohen, Marit Strømøy and Ben Jelf.
Marszalek won the session with a lap of 49.493sec from Torrente, Andersson, Trask and Morin after the stint was yellow-flagged with a hard-pushing Cohen spectacularly barrel-rolling his Baba at turn one on his last lap with just 12 seconds on the clock. The Osprey Rescue team was at the scene of the accident quickly and the fully conscious Australian was transferred to hospital for medical checks.
Q2
A further six boats would fall by the wayside in the second 15-minute session. Trask was out early again and posted a 49.590sec run to lay down the gauntlet for his 11 rivals. Andersson then stormed to the top of the leaderboard with a 49.193sec and Alec Weckström and Torrente also overhauled the Australian. It was then Stark’s tum to hit the front with a 49.006sec run, as Morin slotted into second in an action-packed start to Q2.
Torrente topped the times with a 47.782sec run with 10 minutes of the stint to run and Dillard, Alberto Comparato, Marszalek and Ferdinand Zandbergen under pressure to find extra pace. Dillard ground to a halt on his comeback from back surgery with vibration concerns on the boat and had to settle for 12th position in qualifying.
Comparato, Zandbergen, Morin, Wyatt and Arand joined the American on the list of drivers who missed out in Q3 with the fastest time in the session going to Torrente (47.782sec) from Stark, Andersson, Weckström, Trask and Marszalek – the latter running a late lap of 48.532sec to push a desperate Wyatt out of Q3.
Q3
With both Sharjah Team boats missing out on Q3 on their home race, Torrente, Stark, Andersson, Marszalek, Weckström and Trask battled it out for pole position.
Torrente’s strategy in Jeddah had been to post a fast lap early and the American carded the target of 48.277sec, only for Andersson to run even quicker with a 47.526sec. Weckström and Stark also passed the championship leader and Trask and Marszalek settled into fifth and sixth.
Torrente climbed to second with a 47.558sec but his team-mate again passed him to grab second with a 47.310sec run behind Andersson. Trask could only manage two laps after concerns about the engine following a fuel surge and had to settle for sixth position with Marszalek qualifying in fifth.
But the heat was on for the top four positions with Andersson holding on from the Victory Team duo and Stark into the last three minutes. The Swede held on to claim a vital pole position with his best lap of 47.191sec. Weckström and Torrente qualified in second and third, ahead of Stark, Marszalek and Trask.
Action continues with the two Sprint races on Saturday afternoon.
