Friday, October 18:  Team Vietnam’s Jonas Andersson needed the fastest lap of the entire weekend to qualify on pole position for the New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou-China on Friday morning.

 

A pulsating qualifying session saw just one second separate 12 drivers in Q1 but it was the Swedish defending World Champion who snatched pole with a lap of 43.184sec to take the lead in the F1H2O Pole Position Trophy on the Yellow River in China’s Henan Province.

 

Andersson said: “We got the pole. We must have pole position to have any chance to beat Rusty (Wyatt). It was a tough qually. The boat was not perfect today. I am not really happy with the boat but we are happy with the pole. We will have to do some adjustments for the race.

 

“I buy this boat for this season and the course we had in Olbia was a special course. The last race in Shanghai was very rough so this was actually the first time that we had the boat in normal conditions. We did some adjustments yesterday in the two practice that we did. It felt better yesterday than today. For the race, it should be perfect.”

 

The China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin pushed the two-time champion all the way and qualified second with a lap of 43.561sec, while current World Championship leader Rusty Wyatt of the Sharjah Team qualified in third.

 

Two-time World Champion Sami Seliö enjoyed a return to form to snatch fourth on the start pontoon and Andersson’s rookie Team Vietnam team-mate Stefan Arand was fifth. The Victory Team’s Erik Stark qualified in sixth after pulling out of the Q3 session with several minutes still on the clock.

 

Arand, Morin and Wyatt all had their best laps cancelled for not respecting race control orders but the decision did not affect the qualifying positions.

 

Strømøy Racing’s Bartek Marszalek will start the race in seventh, the Team Abu Dhabi duo of Thani Al-Qamzi and Rashed Al-Qemzi qualified in eighth and ninth place and the China CTIC Team’s Brent Dillard rounding off the top 10.

 

Q1

 

Six of the 18 boats were eliminated during the opening 20-minute qualifying session in overcast conditions. Morin opened his account with an early run of 45.052sec and Al-Qamzi and Stark also ran sub-46 seconds before the session was yellow-flagged when the Red Devil SMC F1 Team’s Ferdinand Zandbergen crashed and was towed off the race course with substantial boat damage. Maverick Racing’s Alexandre Bourgeot was also towed away with mechanical issues.

 

During the stoppage, Stark returned to the pontoon for a propeller change before qualifying resumed with just over 17 minutes on the clock. Wyatt moved up to third with a run of 45.939sec but Andersson didn’t take to the water until the 15-minute mark and then stormed into second with an opening sprint of 45.876sec.

 

By the end of Q1, Zandbergen and Bourgeot were joined by Cédric Deguisne, Duarte Benavente, Marit Strømøy and Ben Jelf on the list of non-qualifiers.

 

Morin’s solitary lap of 45.052sec topped the lap times in the session until a late flier of 44.729sec from Al-Qamzi won the session. Brent Dillard left it late to survive and knock Bartek Marszalek out of Q2, only for the Pole to run a late lap of 45.620sec to push a distraught Ben Jelf out of contention in the dying seconds.

 

Q2

 

Six further boats were eliminated in Q2. Al-Qamzi (45.352sec) was the first racer to card a competitive lap but the yellow flag was raised again with less than two minutes on the clock when a turn buoy was damaged. Race officials decided to reset the clock after a timing issue and the 15-minute session started afresh once the turn buoy had been replaced.

 

Morin laid down the early gauntlet with an opening run of 44.833sec but that was beaten by Andersson’s flier of 44.541sec. There was drama involving the World Championship leader Rusty Wyatt: the Sharjah Team decided to crane his boat out of the water with water inside the hull.

 

Morin hit the front with a lap of 44.173sec – the fastest of the weekend thus far – but the main focus was at the rear of the field with Marszalek, Ahmad Al-Fahim and Brent Dillard struggling to make headway and Wyatt still not able to make a qualifying lap.

 

Wyatt returned to action with seven minutes on the clock after a duckbill valve had been replaced, as Andersson hit the front with a storming run of 43.927sec. But there was no stopping Wyatt and the Ontario racer carded a stunning run of 43.911sec to move to the top of the standings.

 

Filip Roms, Al-Fahim, Dillard, the Team Abu Dhabi duo of Thani Al-Qamzi and Rashed Al-Qemzi and Marszalek missed out on Q3.

 

Q3

 

Andersson, Morin, Erik Stark, Stefan Arand, Wyatt and Sami Seliö lined up for the six-boat 10-minute Q3 shoot-out. Andersson drew first blood with a lap of 43.664sec but it was not enough to stop Morin grabbing the early advantage with a run of 43.607sec.

 

Andersson responded to regain provisional pole with a 43.184sec tour and that lap remained unbeatable for the remainder of the session. It also enabled the Swede to snatch the lead in the F1H2O Pole Position Trophy. Morin qualified in second ahead of Wyatt, a resurgent Seliö, Arand and Stark.