Friday, June 14:  Defending World Champion Jonas Andersson claimed the confidence boost of topping the times in the second of the free practice sessions for the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy in Olbia on Friday afternoon.

The Team Vietnam driver followed up his quickest time in session one to card a lap of 36.974sec in the second stint and that put the Swede 0.014 seconds ahead of Canadian Rusty Wyatt in the lap times. Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi had been second quickest in session one and followed that with another useful set of lap times to slot into third place. The CTIC China Team’s Peter Morin and Al-Qamzi’s team-mate Alberto Comparato rounded off the top five.

Wyatt benefitted from calmer waters at the start of the second session to record the quickest lap of the weekend so far – a run of 36.988sec – that put the Sharjah Team driver at the top of the leader board at the start of the session. The only other driver to take to the water in the opening minutes was Comparato and he carded an impressive run of 37.868sec.

Morin opened his account with a 37.943sec run, Al-Qamzi bettered his first session times with a tour of 37.126sec and Morin’s team-mate Brent Dillard shaved two seconds off the times he had set in the first practice stint.

Andersson’s opening lap at race pace earned the Swede top spot with a best run of the day of 36.974sec and then a yellow flag interrupted proceedings for a short time with 35 minutes on the clock when the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team’s Sami Seliö lost his fuel tank cover.

The F1 Atlantic Team’s Duarte Benavente suffered engine issues after just one lap of the opening free practice session and the team changed the powerplant in the Portuguese driver’s Moore hull in preparation for qualifying and the Sprint race on Saturday. As a result, Benavente sat out the stint alongside Seliö’s team-mate Ferdinand Zandbergen and Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne.

On-water action resumes with the all-important qualifying sessions from 10.00hrs on Saturday.