Saturday, March 2: Team Bình Định-Viet Nam’s defending World Champion Jonas Andersson was the class of the field and a fastest lap that broke the one-minute barrier for the first time gave the Swede the best tour of the second practice session for the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia on Saturday morning.
The second of the weekend’s practice stints was a perfect opportunity for drivers to finalise their set-ups for the pair of Sprint races that would follow on Lake Toba later on Saturday morning. Team Abu Dhabi’s Alberto Comparato was the Swede’s closest challenger and Andersson’s fellow countryman and great rival Erik Stark of the Victory Team was third quickest.
After a disappointing day on Friday, the China CTIC Team’s Brent Dillard was first out on to the water but it was Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi who posted the first lap of real intent and leapt to the top of the standings with a 1min 05.108sec only to be knocked almost immediately off his perch by rookie Stefan Arand. It didn’t take long for the young Estonian’s team-mate Jonas Andersson to unleash his Team Bình Định-Viet Nam hull and the Swede carded a 1min 02.701sec that was pushed hard by a fast time by the second rookie Rusty Wyatt of the Sharjah Team.
Team Abu Dhabi’s new recruit Alberto Comparato was back up to speed after missing the second qualifying session on Friday and the Italian slotted into third behind Wyatt and Andersson. Stark hit the front with a screamer of 1.02.146sec as the session headed into the final 38 minutes but Andersson then delivered the fastest lap of the entire weekend – a flier of 1min 00.644sec – to regain top spot. He wasn’t satisfied with that either and the Swede broke the one-minute barrier with a 59.116sec flier.
The session was yellow-flagged with less than 30 minutes to run and after Comparato had moved up to second. Once a dislodged turn buoy had been replaced, a few drivers returned to action for the remaining 15 minutes but no-one could make in-roads into Andersson’s sensational session-winning lap. Both Bartek Marszalek and Sami Seliö missed the session.
