Friday, October 18: Team Vietnam’s Jonas Andersson scorched to a start-to-finish victory in the first of the 18-lap Sprint races at the New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou-China on Friday afternoon.
The Swede led from pole position on the Yellow River in China’s Henan Province and, despite a yellow-flag stoppage when his team-mate Stefan Arand crashed spectacularly on the opening lap, Andersson was never troubled and cruised to 10 vital championship points with a 9.893-second victory.
Andersson said: “I was testing some new propellers and I was a little nervous. It felt good. We see tomorrow if we use them or something else. It was smooth. I was pushing quite hard. I wanted to see that everything was working. In the end, I was easy but I was pushing at the start.”
Two-time World Champion Sami Seliö’s resurgence continued with a fine second place, the Red Devil SMC F1 Team driver finishing over half a minute clear of fellow countryman Filip Roms of the Sharjah Team.
“Third position for me,” said Roms. “Some drivers in front of me stopped with technical issues but I had a good race. I didn’t have the power steering so I was just surviving at the end of the race.”
Andersson lined up on pole position for the opening Sprint race ahead of team-mate Stefan Arand, Sami Seliö, Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi and Rashed Al-Qemzi, Ben Jelf, Filip Roms and Maverick Racing’s Cédric Deguisne. Ferdinand Zandbergen was forced to sit out the race after his accident at the start of qualifying on Friday morning.
Andersson made a superb start but the race was yellow-flagged almost immediately when Arand barrel-rolled in a spectacular crash in a bid to avoid a crash with Al-Qemzi. The impact removed the engine cowling and damaged a sponson with the Estonian now facing a race against time to repair the hull before the race on Saturday unless he calls upon Team Vietnam’s spare boat.
Andersson retained his lead from Seliö and Rashed Al-Qemzi through the restart, although the young Abu Dhabi driver was soon overtaken by his team-mate Thani. By lap five, Andersson’s lead had grown to 3.664sec and he began to edge away from his veteran Finnish rival. But Thani Al-Qamzi hit trouble on lap eight and pulled off the race course.
A disappointed Al-Qamzi said: “This race for me all bad luck, one time with the battery, one time with the engine and now again with the engine. No luck for me. I hope tomorrow we have a new race and it is better for me.”
Jelf continued to pressurise Al-Qemzi and the Briton passed Emirati on lap 11 when Rashed Al-Qemzi also hit trouble and stopped off the race course to cap a miserable race for Team Abu Dhabi. Andersson reached the chequered flag well clear of Seliö, but that was after Jelf also stopped on lap 14 and left just four drivers running at the end of the race.
