Monday, October 14: The recent Grand Prix of Shanghai China may have been shortened to 11 laps because of the freak weather conditions on the Huangpu River but the outcome of the race proved that Rusty Wyatt’s two victories in Indonesia and Sardinia were no flashes in the pan and the Sharjah Team’s Canadian super rookie is here to stay.
A little over a week on from that weekend in the People’s Republic of China’s third largest city, racing equipment has been moved north-west through the country to the city of Zhengzhou for the fifth and penultimate round of the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship on the Yellow River on October 17th-19th.
The People’s Government of Zhengzhou, race promotor 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 for a second year after the city took its place in the calendar for the first time in April 2023.
H2O Racing and local officials will be hoping for better weather conditions on this occasion as the fight for the UIM F1H2O Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship hots up before the season’s finale in Sharjah in early December.
Wyatt and his team braved the conditions better than any of their rivals in Shanghai and the boat was set-up well for the demanding conditions, with strong tides, gusting winds, rain and choppy waters making the actual race more of a survival exercise. Wyatt’s emphatic win has lifted him 17.5 points ahead of the Victory Team’s Erik Stark in the points’ standings and he leads the defending World Champion Jonas Andersson by 18 points.
Team Vietnam’s Andersson admitted after the Shanghai race that he couldn’t find the ideal boat set-up for the rough conditions and he struggled to match Wyatt’s pace.
As a result of that win and Filip Roms’s ninth place in Shanghai, the Sharjah Team now leads Team Vietnam by 1.5 points in the Teams’ Championship with Strømøy Racing holding on to third, despite a disappointing weekend for Marit Strømøy and Bartek Marszalek in Shanghai. However, the pair are still seventh and fifth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Strømøy missed the entire qualifying session because of a dashboard electrical gremlin on her normally-reliable Mercury V8, four-stroke-engined DAC and was forced to start the race from the rear of the pontoon. She finished 15th, a place ahead of her Polish team-mate.
Strømøy has been jetting across the planet in the build up to Zhengzhou. “I headed off straight to Malaga via Qatar after the race,” said the Norwegian. “In Malaga, I was a keynote speaker and singer at an event. Then it was back to Norway and, after a short night’s sleep, I needed to be at the Chinese visa centre in Oslo to get an express visa for China. Then I flew back to join the rest of the team and hopefully in better water conditions.”
The Red Devil SMC F1 Team’s Ferdinand Zandbergen delivered his best result of the season with an impressive fourth place in Shanghai, although the Dutchman still languishes in 11th in the Drivers’ Championship, three places behind his team-mate Sami Seliö, who retired from the last race early on.
Young Stefan Arand gave strong support to Andersson and Team Vietnam at the last race and the Estonian holds sixth in the Drivers’ Championship.
The CTIC China Team was desperate for a strong showing at its flagship home race in Shanghai but an engine change for Peter Morin put paid to that after he had been towed out of the qualifying session. The Frenchman stormed back from 16th position to finish the race in a superb sixth and still holds fourth in the rankings. Team-mate Brent Dillard celebrated his 38th birthday at the race and rewarded the team with seventh place to hold 12th in the championship.
The F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf is used to choppy conditions in his native Great Britain and continues to grow in confidence. Despite jarring his back slightly on a rogue wave, Jelf guided his DAC to eighth and holds 10th in the points’ standings. “I was happy to bring the boat home in one piece,” said Jelf. “It was important that the boat didn’t need any repairs so we can be back fighting for more places in Zhengzhou.”
Team Abu Dhabi still languishes in seventh place in the Teams’ Championship but the most successful outfit in the last 10 years will be looking for a marked improvement in Zhengzhou. A one-lap penalty for clouting a turn buoy dropped Thani Al-Qamzi from sixth to 10th in Shanghai and team-mate Alberto Comparato finished the race in 14th. The duo holds ninth and 17th in the Drivers’ Championship and the team knows the importance of better results over the final two races of the season.
Between the two Chinese races, Team Abu Dhabi announced that Comparato had parted company with the team by mutual consent and his place in the driver line-up in Zhengzhou will be taken by the five-time F2 World Champion Rashed Al-Qemzi, who stood in for the Italian in Vietnam back in March.
Maverick Racing’s duo of Cédric Deguisne and Alexandre Bourgeot both showed a good turn of speed in Shanghai, despite an engine change for Deguisne after qualifying. They may have finished outside the points in 11th and 13thpositions but the French duo braved the conditions better than some of their rivals. They are 14th and 16th in the Drivers’ Championship after four races.
A premature retirement in Shanghai didn’t help the F1 Atlantic Team’s Duarte Benavente but the Portuguese veteran will be hoping for better luck in Zhengzhou, as will the Victory Team’s Ahmad Al-Fahim, who finished 12th.
Registration and technical scrutineering will take place on Wednesday (October 16th) in Zhengzhou and Thursday’s on-water action will be dominated by three free practice sessions, starting at 10.00hrs, 12.00hrs and 1500hrs, respectively.
Qualifying on the Yellow River fits into the time schedule at 09.00hrs on Friday (October 18th) and precedes the two Sprint races, starting at 15.10hrs and 15.40hrs.
After an hour allocated for a warm-up on Saturday morning (October 19th), the UIM F1H2O World Championship New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou China fires into life at 15.30hrs (local time).
