Thursday, October 17: Team Vietnam’s Jonas Andersson set the pace with a fastest lap of 44.445sec to top the times in the first free practice session for the New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou-China on Thursday morning.
Andersson said: “Maybe this place is perfect for us. The last race was very rough and it was down to good luck in that race. Here we have a normal course and you can test normal things. We test a lot this first practice and the feeling in the boat was good. It’s going to be tough to beat Rusty (Wyatt) for the championship. He has a big lead but anything can happen. There are still 60 points to race for. My boat feels very good on this course.”
Cloudy conditions with the forecast of rain later were prevalent at the start of the fourth round of the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship on the Yellow River in China’s Henan Province. The race course was virtually identical to the one used for the first time in Zhengzhou last April.
After being forced to sit out the entire qualifying session in Shanghai with electrical gremlins, Marit Strømøy was the first racer to set a competitive time in the opening free practice session with a run of 48.471sec but that was soon eclipsed by Thani Al-Qamzi’s first lap of 46.154sec. His team-mate Rashed Al-Qemzi’s return to the hot seat began with a time of 49.333sec.
The Red Devil SMC F1 Team’s Sami Seliö started strongly with a 45.264sec flier to hit the front after seven minutes of the one-hour session. Ahmad Al-Fahim, Brent Dillard and Cédric Deguisne were still to take to the water with 50 minutes remaining on the countdown, while the CTIC China Team’s Peter Morin struggled at the rear of the field and only ran three laps.
Andersson hit the front with his fourth lap of 45.247sec and that time stood as the benchmark through the opening quarter of the session. Dillard eventually took to the water after 17 minutes of the stint but Stark (44.875sec) and Al-Qamzi (44.999sec) were the first two racers to break the 45-second barrier before a yellow flag curtailed progress.
Practice resumed on the half-hour mark and Andersson soon joined Stark and Al-Qamzi with a lap under 45 seconds. The defending World Champion then hit the front with a flier of 44.624sec with one third of the session to run and bettered his lap chart with a 44.445sec run.
Championship leader Rusty Wyatt joined the sub-45 club with a late run of 44.880sec to slot into third behind his title rivals Andersson and Stark and Morin also returned to action and moved up to eighth in the closing minutes.
Wyatt said: “It was great water conditions. The weather is on our side this time. We tried a lot of new things. I am really looking forward to this weekend. It’s a much bigger course but we don’t have a race set-up for this course yet.”
The People’s Government of Zhengzhou, race promoter Tianrong and the China Motorboat Association (CMA) will be able to showcase the promotion of the exciting new Henan Development and the city of Zhengzhou during the course of the weekend’s racing.
