Saturday, December 20: The Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente earned victory in the second of the 16-lap Sprint races at the Road to Sharjah-Grand Prix of Sharjah in perfect water conditions on Khalid Lagoon on Saturday afternoon.
The result and fifth position for team-mate Alec Weckström confirmed a first ever UIM F1H2O Teams’ Championship title for the Dubai-based Victory Team on the eve of the final Grand Prix of the season. The previous best result was third place behind the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team and Mad-Croc Baba Racing in 2016. Torrente is now a strong favourite to win his fourth Drivers’ World Championship and heads into the two-man showdown on the lagoon with a 14-point cushion over Team Sweden’s Jonas Andersson.
A delighted Torrente said: “Dewalt and I have been working on qualifying, propellers and starts and that’s it. The boat ran great and I was lap counting, counting them down one-by-one. I am going to treat tomorrow like the rest of the year. If the win presents itself to me, I will go for the win. Jonas is really tough though. We have around 36 laps or so to do tomorrow. I need to remember, the ultimate goal is to win a fourth World Championship. If everything goes okay, we can make it happen.
The Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt had persevered with the new Sharjah-designed boat in qualifying and was delighted to finish second behind Torrente. The runner-up said: “Not enough test time for us but I am proud of this new developing boat. We had great speed. Shaun was not on full pace: he has a big weekend ahead of him but we have been focusing on the start and qualifying. As a driver, we haven’t had that speed all season.”
Team Sweden’s Grant Trask and the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team’s Ferdinand Zandbergen finished third and fourth with Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne and Duarte Benavente rounding off the finishers behind Weckström.
Weckström headed team-mate Torrente into the start of the second of the 16-lap Sprint races with Trask and an encouraged Wyatt aiming to upset the Victory steamroller in third and fourth positions. Zandbergen, Comparato, Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne and the F1 Atlantic Team’s Duarte Benavente rounded off the nine starters with Damon Cohen sidelined following his morning’s spectacular qualifying accident and resting under observation in hospital. Jelf was also a non-starter with electrical issues.
Torrente made a sensational start and managed to pull away from Weckström down the home straight to snatch the lead. Wyatt managed to pass Trask to take third place but the leading American was in determined mood and increased his lead to 6.968 seconds through lap two. Comparato passed Zandbergen to take fifth.
Wyatt and Trask both found a way to overtake a troubled Weckström but Comparato ground to a halt with a broken propeller on lap four. Zandbergen also found a way past Weckström to take fourth but the Finn’s team-mate had full control of the race and led Wyatt by 9.255 seconds at the halfway point.
There was no stopping Torrente, however, and the Victory Team driver picked up the vital 10 points for a 9.188-second win over Wyatt to ensure that he retained a 14-point lead in the World Championship to take into the final race of the season on Sunday. Trask rounded off the podium places with Zandbergen, Weckström, Deguisne and Benavente rounding off the finishers.
