Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt secured pole position for Round 4 of the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship.

The Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt mastered the tricky race conditions better than his rivals to claim pole position after a frenetic qualifying session in tricky water conditions for the Grand Prix of Shanghai China on Saturday morning.

Defending UIM F1H2O World Champion Jonas Andersson of Team Vietnam finished the session 1.256 seconds behind his title rival. The Victory Team’s Erik Stark rounded off the top three qualifiers with Andersson’s rookie team-mate Stefan Arand and Dutchman Ferdinand Zandbergen qualifying in fourth and fifth.

Wyatt’s result also lifted him to the top of the standings in the F1H2O Pole Position Trophy. The delighted Canadian said: “It was so rough. At the beginning of the session, we almost lost it coming into the front straight. It was unbelievable out there, so windy, so choppy, so many boats. Trying to find a good line, we made it happen and quite a gap we put together.

Wyatt was the very early pace-setter but Stark hit the front after seven minutes of the session with a lap of 46.154sec. Wyatt hit back on the 10-minute mark with a 45.817sec to push Stark down to second place with Andersson holding third with a tour of 46.320sec. Marit Strømøy was the only driver not on the water and the Norwegian sat out the entire session

Stark (45.255sec) regained the lead with 29 minutes of the stint to run, as Arand slotted into fourth ahead of Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi and the F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf. Arand was dialled in well and the Estonian stormed into second place with a 45.772sec but the top five were in determined mood and Wyatt regained provisional pole with a 44.108sec and Andersson also passed Stark with a 44.740sec.