Thursday, February 29:  Estonian racer Stefan Arand joins Canada’s Rusty Wyatt as the second rookie driver at this weekend’s Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia on spectacular Lake Toba. The new Team Bình Định-Viet Nam racer finished third overall in last year’s UIM F2 World Championship and will race alongside the defending World Champion Jonas Andersson this season.

After making his final preparations for the weekend’s race action, Arand, who is the first ever official driver to represent Estonia at the top level of the sport, said: “It has been a dream for as long as I can remember. I’ve listened to the voice of Stephen Michael a lot over the years while looking at the live images of the races and I have followed it over the years. I don’t know how big a step up it is (F2 to F1H2O) because I have not been on the water yet.

“Last year was the first time I ever got to go to a race by ‘plane. Now I only go by ‘plane, so it’s a big step because we used to just load everybody up into a car or a camper and go. It’s definitely a shift in the procedure for races. Jonas is a person I feel I can learn a lot from. It is really helpful to have him as a team-mate.”

Arand will take to the water for the first time from 07.00hrs on Friday morning with one hour of permitted free practice. The three traditional qualifying sessions then take centre stage from 10.30hrs.