Wednesday, 25 October: Team Sweden boss Jonas Andersson has confirmed they will run a third boat in the final rounds of the season in Abu Dhabi on 6-8 December and a week later in Sharjah [13-15], with Erik Edin lining up to make his UIM F1H2O World Championship debut.

The news swells the ranks of driver entries for the final two races of the year to 21 with Abu Dhabi and Sweden running three boats and Jonathan Jones to confirm which team the Dragon-Palfreyman combo will align to.

Edin, 27, from Stockholm started racing at the age of 14 competing in the sport250 class, then moving up to GT 15 and then GT 30, picking up gold and bronze medals in the Swedish and World Championships.

He stepped up into F2 in 2013, competing for the next two years against his now teammate Erik Stark. Edin finished runner-up in the F2 World Championship in 2016 and this year clinched the F2 European title. “It’s a great opportunity for me and I am very grateful to Jonas [Andersson],” he said. “We have been talking for some time and now it will happen.  I also know Erik very well and bought my first F2 boat from him. This will be a great experience and especially to be part of a team with three Swedish drivers.”

As Edin prepares for his debut, Harbin pole and GP winner Stark will be focussing on the title race, currently sitting in second place, 16 points behind Alex Carella with two races to go and 40 points on offer.