Saturday, 16 July, EVIAN (France): Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente topped the time sheets in a shortened practice session with the general consensus of driver opinion describing the conditions as a racing lottery.
Torrente scrambled five laps in his new Moore hull posting a best time of 1:06.44s around the 6-Pin 2080metre circuit. “That was interesting! But it’s still P1 and I’ll take it,” said Torrente. “It’s really brutal out there. There were some big big rollers out there and hard to read. I like rough water but that’s just survival.”
Today’s times were clearly not indicative of what will be possible and almost 20 seconds off last year’s pole time of 47.69 posted by Philippe Chiappe.
Comments:
Erik Stark/Emirates Racing (1:13.19s) – The waves are not too big but very very long. It’s very hard to see and get through them. Right now it’s like Russian roulette. Boat is good but the maximum speed out there is 100kmh so what to say.
Alex Carella/Team Abu Dhabi (1:08.21s) – Ah no way the wave is too long. Very hard to keep the boat straight, you can’t see. It looks flat but big holes everywhere. It’s like roulette every lap. Not possible to race.
Francesco Cantando/Blaze Performance (1:55.20s) – That was not really useful. These are not racing conditions so no sense to risk boats or people for just free practice. No sense at all. Ok we test but no need to take any risk.
Thani Al Qamzi/Team abu Dhabi (1:18.42s) – Too rough and quite dangerous. Not possible to push. I tried but didn’t want to risk my boat.
Sami Selio/BABA Racing (2:28.86s) – There’s no need to talk about conditions. I don’t understand why they send us out. No chance to do even 50 percent of any good speed. I was just idling around out there breaking in the gearbox and checking everything works in the boat. If they give the green flag for qualifying in same conditions will be ridiculous.”
Philippe Chiappe/CTIC F1 China (1:39.75s) – It’s very bad out there. Impossible to drive. Not a good idea to go out. It’s a lottery but the race is not. The conditions are getting worse. We risk too much in these conditions. If it is like this for qualifying we will not start.
Jonas Andersson/Team Sweden – Right now not possible to race.
Mike Szymura/EMIC Racing (1:16.03s) – No good. I just go slowly. The waves are just incredible. You just can’t use the throttle.
Marit Stromoy/EMIC Racing (1:57.38s) – It’s quite horrible. Not possible to push. The best lap is about 20 seconds slower than last year’s qualifying. It’s a risk just going into the circuit.
