F1H2O Rookie Wyatt Nails Last-Gasp Victory To Open Season In Indonesia
In today’s historic 300th Grand Prix in the 43-year history of the Union Internationale Motonautique F1H2O World Championship, history was made as Sharjah Team rookie Rusty Wyatt became the first Canadian and the first UIM rookie to win a race after snatching a last-gasp victory in the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia on Lake Toba.
Rookie Rusty Wyatt grabbed a sensational victory in the F1H2O season-opening race, the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia on Lake Toba. Photo courtesy Simon Palfrader/F1H2O
The 28-year-old Canadian headed into the final lap of the F1H2O season opener in third place behind the defending world champion, Jonas Andersson of Sweden, and his Swedish rival, Erik Stark. But Team Bình Định-Viet Nam’s Andersson, who had led the race after a yellow flag on the opening lap, began to slow with a fire on his boat and it looked as though Stark of the Dubai-based Victory Team would storm through to take the checkered flag.
But, while the two Scandinavians were jostling for the lead heading down the final straight, Stark also had technical issues and Wyatt took an outside line and stormed through to snatch victory by less than one second. The Ontario driver now has a four-point lead over Stark in the drivers championship with Andersson seven points behind in third. Wyatt’s stunning victory deprived Andersson of a 15th career GP win and a fifth in succession going back to last season.
In an F1H2O press release, Wyatt said he felt ecstatic following the race.
“it was a 30-lap race, that’s for sure, and I started to back off a bit,” said Wyatt, who is thrilled to racing for Sharjah Team manager Scott Gillman, a four-time world champion from the United States. “The water was getting pretty nasty. We had a bit of gap in between each other and I was happy with third but I saw Jonas start breaking down and Stark was having an issue and I held it wide open around the outside and there we were. Being the only Canadian to ever win a UIM F1H2O race is the next level. I will be going home super happy. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Stark was not pleased with his runner-up finish.
“It was brutal,” Stark said. “There was a misunderstanding at the start and, luckily, we did a restart and I made an amazing start and I catch Jonas. We had a really good battle for half a lap and I took him. But it was such a bad luck that someone crashed, so it was yellow-flagged and I needed to go back to my starting position. After that, it was basically following (Jonas) in the race. I saw he had some problems in the end. I was catching him and then I passed him but I had some technical issue on the last straight.”
Victory Team driver Erik Stark finished second in the F1H2O season opener in Indonesia. Photo courtesy Arek Rejs/F1H2O
Andersson agreed that the start was messy.
“There was a problem with the start light,” Andersson said. “I think it was only me and Erik who understood it was not a start. Then we had the restart. I had some issues with the boat from the beginning. It was not fast today. In the end we start to get fire in the boat. I am really lucky to be third today. I am thankful to be third.”
Behind the runaway top three, Andersson’s Team Bình Định-Viet Nam teammate Stefan Arand was almost unnoticed in fourth place on his Grand Prix debut. The Estonian is now fourth in the drivers championship with last year’s Indonesian race winner, Bartek Marszalek, in fifth in his Strømøy Racing DAC. Team Bình Định-Viet Nam has a four-point lead over the Sharjah Team in the UIM F1H2O teams championship.
Frenchman Peter Morin of the China CTIC Team and Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi initially came home in sixth and a subdued seventh until they were penalized a lap apiece for not maintaining their lane at the start. That moved two-time world champion Sami Seliö into sixth. Norway’s Marit Strømøy guided the Mercury four-stroke DAC to the finish in seventh and the F1 Atlantic Team’s Ben Jelf finished eighth. Team Abu Dhabi’s Alberto Comparato and the China CTIC Team’s Brent Dillard of the U.S. rounded off the top 10.
Morin and Al-Qamzi slipped back to 11th and 12th and Portuguese veteran Duarte Benavente and Cédric Deguisne of Maverick Racing were also outside the points in 13th and 14th.
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