Thursday, October 17: Defending World Champion Jonas Andersson and the Victory Team’s Erik Stark set the pace in the second free practice session for the New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou-China on Thursday lunchtime.
The Swede managed to top the times in the session with a best lap of 44.281sec – the fastest lap of the weekend so far – to finish the stint 0.735 seconds ahead of his friend and great rival.
No racers took to the water for the opening eight minutes of the session. Marit Strømøy was again the first on to the water in her four-stroke V8-engined DAC and she carded an opening run of 46.717sec in clear water.
After a third of the session, the Victory Team’s Erik Stark had hit the top of the standings with a run of 45.330sec but that was soon surpassed by a 45.213sec lap by Peter Morin of the China CTIC Team. His team mate Brent Dillard was able to start the second free practice stint despite crashing in the first one following a coming together with Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi.
“Thani had just finished a lap and I had just started a lap,” said the American. “When we went to the next left-hander after the right-hand turn, he was going slow and I was running up his inside and we got to the buoy and he slammed the door. I don’t know why. I had a split-second decision. Do I turn right - which I didn’t want to do - or try and make it through the buoy? I knew I was going to hit him when we turned. The boat was okay, just a little damage.”
Morin then ran an even faster 45.120sec, as the F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf and Duarte Benavente sat out the early part of the stint to carry out set-up changes on their boats, along with Team Vietnam’s Andersson, the two Team Abu Dhabi drivers and two-time World Champion Sami Seliö.
Andersson took to the course on the half-hour mark and opened his account with a 46.898sec run before moving up the rankings to slot in behind Morin with a 45.218.
But it wasn’t long before both Andersson and championship leader Rusty Wyatt moved to the top of the standings with respective laps of 45.059sec and 45.084sec.
Andersson then put the pedal to the metal to card a session-winning lap of 44.281sec with Erik Stark carding a late run of 45.016sec to snatch second from Wyatt. Al-Qamzi, Seliö and Benavente sat out the session.
