Saturday, October 5: The Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt mastered the tricky race conditions better than his rivals to claim pole position after a frenetic qualifying session in tricky water conditions for the Grand Prix of Shanghai China on Saturday morning.
Defending UIM F1H2O World Champion Jonas Andersson of Team Vietnam finished the session 1.256 seconds behind his title rival. The Victory Team’s Erik Stark rounded off the top three qualifiers with Andersson’s rookie team-mate Stefan Arand and Dutchman Ferdinand Zandbergen qualifying in fourth and fifth.
Wyatt’s result also lifted him to the top of the standings in the F1H2O Pole Position Trophy. The delighted Canadian said: “It was so rough. At the beginning of the session, we almost lost it coming into the front straight. It was unbelievable out there, so windy, so choppy, so many boats. Trying to find a good line, we made it happen and quite a gap we put together.
“I am really happy. I am feeling good. Let’s see if we can get the Sprint in today with the weather we have got coming in. Overall, I think it’s going to be challenging for the race with that many boats at the start. Hopefully we can make it happen. The Sharjah Team have put a lot of effort into this programme and I am really glad to be doing this for them.”
Because of the threat of typhoon-like weather conditions in the Baoshan district at the mouth of the Huangpu River, a last-minute decision was made to start the qualifying session 30 minutes early and have just one 40-minute session.
Wyatt was the very early pace-setter but Stark hit the front after seven minutes of the session with a lap of 46.154sec. Wyatt hit back on the 10-minute mark with a 45.817sec to push Stark down to second place with Andersson holding third with a tour of 46.320sec. Marit Strømøy was the only driver not on the water and the Norwegian sat out the entire session.
Stark (45.255sec) regained the lead with 29 minutes of the stint to run, as Arand slotted into fourth ahead of Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi and the F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf. Arand was dialled in well and the Estonian stormed into second place with a 45.772sec but the top five were in determined mood and Wyatt regained provisional pole with a 44.108sec and Andersson also passed Stark with a 44.740sec.
The yellow flag was then raised with 22 minutes on the clock after Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne ground to a halt on the far side of the race course. The China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin was also towed off the water and Al-Qamzi returned to the pontoon with potential technical issues after running just two laps.
Racing resumed with 18 minutes to go in worsening water conditions but there was no stopping Wyatt and the Ontario driver pushed home his advantage with a storming run of 43.484sec. Two-time World Champion Sami Seliö climbed to sixth behind Wyatt, Andersson, Stark, Arand and his Red Devil SMC F1 team-mate Zandbergen.
Al-Qamzi returned to action with just over eight minutes to run as he tried to improve on his eighth place. The leading group were all slowing to try and take advantage of any clean water conditions for a last-gasp assault at pole position and Wyatt remained at the top of the standings with just five minutes remaining.
The conditions were far from ideal for risk taking with the tide starting to come in and Wyatt held on to confirm a second successive pole position with his title rivals Andersson and Stark completing the podium places in qualifying.
Positions from the qualifying session will be used for the line-ups for the two 20-minute Sprint races on Saturday afternoon.
