Friday, October 18: The China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin held off a fierce challenge from the Sharjah Team’s World Championship leader Rusty Wyatt to secure a 1.94-second victory in the second Sprint race at the New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou-China on Friday afternoon.
With Wyatt only claiming nine points for second place, the result means that Sprint race one winner Jonas Andersson reduced the Canadian’s UIM F1H2O World Championship lead to 17 points.
Sprint race winner Morin said: “It was not so easy. We did a good start and we had to manage the first two corners. After that, we were regular in our laps. It was pretty good. I knew Rusty was not so far way but he was on my back, so it was pretty good.”
Wyatt added: “I’d catch him (Morin) and then I’d lose him. I was just trying to find a good line around the right-hander. I was struggling too much. Coming into the right-hander I couldn’t see a whole lot. We had the speed but I just couldn’t get close to him. I think we made a couple of changes before the Sprint race and we definitely picked up some speed. This thing is phenomenal off the pontoon. We didn’t get chance to see that with the weather conditions in Shanghai. It’s a learning curve this weekend but I think we have figured it out.”
Erik Stark picked up eight valuable championship points for third place with the Strømøy Racing duo of Bartek Marszalek and Marit Strømøy rounding off the top five. Morin’s team-mate Brent Dillard finished sixth and Ahmad Al-Fahim, Duarte Benavente and Alexandre Bourgeot rounded off the finishers after a processional race.
Stark said: “I am always happy to finish but we have had some technical issues this weekend. After all that, I am very happy to finish third. It is good points for us and good practice for the start tomorrow. We know what we need to improve. We need to go to the tool box to see what we need to find and try and beat them tomorrow.”
The wind picked up on the Yellow River in China’s Henan Province for the start of the second Sprint race, where Morin started ahead of Wyatt, the Victory Team’s Erik Stark and Ahmad Al-Fahim, Marszalek and Strømøy, Dillard, Duarte Benavente of the F1 Atlantic Team and Maverick Racing’s Alexandre Bourgeot.
Morin held his line from a flying Wyatt, as Stark lost ground on the leading duo through the opening turns. By lap two, Morin led Wyatt by just 1.12 seconds with Stark in third ahead of Marszalek, Strømøy, Dillard, Al-Fahim, Benavente and Bourgeot.
Morin was not able to shake Wyatt off but the duo pulled away from a hapless Stark with the remaining drivers holding station through lap seven. Morin managed to fend off the Canadian’s frantic challenge over the subsequent laps and the Frenchman reached the chequered flag 1.94 seconds clear of his rival to earn a memorable first ever Sprint race win. Stark finished third ahead of the two Strømøy Racing boats.
