Electrical Failure Costs Wyatt Shot At Shanghai Pole
F1H2O Championship leader Rusty Wyatt will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Shanghai from sixth position after an electrical component failure ended his qualifying session prematurely in Shanghai.
The Sharjah Team driver had been showing strong pace in Q2, posting a lap of 42.196sec that put him third fastest, when disaster struck with just over three minutes remaining on the clock. Wyatt stopped on the far side of the race course, forcing race officials to deploy a yellow flag as his boat was towed back to the pontoon.
Frantic Repair Effort
With only a short gap between Q2 and the crucial Q3 shootout, Wyatt’s engineers launched into frantic repair work on the engine. The team changed spark plugs and carried out a last-minute test in a desperate bid to get the Canadian back on the water.
While the engine fired up, what Wyatt believed to be an electrical issue meant he missed the start of Q3 entirely, leaving him unable to improve on his Q2 time as team-mates Stefan Arand and Grant Trask battled for pole position.
Taking to Instagram, Wyatt shared images of his team working on the exposed engine, writing: “Very unfortunate break for us at the end of Q2. Electrical component let us down, leading us to retire from the qualifying session. We will start 6th tomorrow.”
He added: “Guys are working hard to get us ready for today’s sprint race 2 starting P3.”
The timing of the failure could hardly have been worse for the points leader. After showing competitive pace throughout Thursday’s practice sessions and the early stages of qualifying, Wyatt was firmly in contention for a front-row starting position before the electrical gremlins struck.
John Moore has a longstanding involvement in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism. He organised the historic Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013 and was actively involved with British offshore racing from 2017 until 2025.
In 2017, Moore founded Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news, insights, and event coverage.
He is now Editor of Powerboat.News, continuing to contribute to the sport’s media landscape with in-depth reporting and analysis.
