Rusty Wyatt delivered the fastest lap of qualifying day to put Team AlUla championed by LeBron James on pole position for Saturday’s E1 Lake Como Grand Prix, in a session that produced two of the biggest surprises of the 2026 championship so far: the elimination of defending champions Team Brady and championship leaders Aoki Racing Team in the same stage.
Wyatt’s 1:18.667 in the Pole Shootout, posted on his third lap as the wind picked up on Lake Como, earned AlUla three bonus championship points. Sara Price put Westbrook Racing second, 0.247 seconds adrift. Oban Duncan took third for Team Monaco and Erik Stark fourth for Sierra Racing Club.
Rusty Wyatt, Team AlUla:
You never want to be called slow. We made some changes and got P1. The first lap caught a couple of big waves, but we found a better set-up to get over them on the second lap.
Brady and Aoki Eliminated in the Quarter-Finals
The day’s defining story came in the Quarter-Finals, where Team Brady and Aoki Racing Team were cut in the same session, finishing seventh and eighth of the eight teams. Back-to-back world champions and championship leaders eliminated at a stroke.
Brady had struggled throughout the day with boat set-up. A lap was invalidated in the Qualifying Time Trials for wrong procedure returning to the milling area. Emma Kimiläinen and Sam Coleman, who had dominated all four qualifying stages at the Jeddah season opener in January, could manage only 1:20.248 in the Quarter-Finals, 3.561 seconds behind session leader Team Miami. The team said they would focus on getting their starts right on Saturday and see what they can do from there.
Aoki were eliminated 0.141 seconds behind Brady at 1:20.389. Championship leader Dani Clos pointed to conditions on the lake.
Dani Clos, Aoki Racing Team:
Weird waves caught me in the last sector. We will fight in the race tomorrow.
Team Miami topped the Quarter-Finals at 1:16.687, with Timmy Hansen posting the fastest individual pilot lap of the session. Rianna O’Meara-Hunt, making her full debut for Miami after her reserve appearance for Sierra at Jeddah, shared those times with Hansen. Team Drogba Global Africa were second in the session, Sierra third, Westbrook fourth, Monaco fifth and AlUla sixth.
Time Trials: Blue Rising and Rafa Eliminated
The day had begun with an early setback for Team Blue Rising. The team, with Mashael Al-Obaidan back in the cockpit after a broken finger ruled her out at Jeddah, recorded a 2:41.004 average in the Qualifying Time Trials following what appeared to be an incident on the water. A 4:00.000 penalty time was applied to one of their sessions, effectively ending their qualifying at the first stage. They were classified tenth.
Team Rafa finished ninth at 1:23.449 and were also eliminated. A lap was invalidated in the Time Trials for wrong procedure returning to the milling area. Cris Lazarraga and Tom Chiappe, who had taken a bonus championship point for third in the Pole Shootout at Jeddah, will start Saturday’s racing from Group 1.
Team Drogba Global Africa ran with reserve pilot Tara Pacheco alongside Micah Wilkinson. The Spanish Olympic sailor competed at four Games between London 2012 and Paris 2024 in the 470 and Nacra 17 classes, replacing Ieva Millere-Hagin for the Como round. Pacheco and Wilkinson finished second in the Time Trials – Wilkinson posted the fastest individual pilot time of the stage at 1:16.019 – and the team reached the Semi-Finals before elimination in sixth.
Semi-Finals: Miami Miss Out by Four Hundredths
In the Semi-Finals, Lucas Ordoñez topped the session for Westbrook at 1:19.440 and 63.7 kph, with Maxime Nocher second for Monaco and Catie Munnings third for Sierra. Nerea Martí put AlUla fourth in 1:21.075 to claim the last Pole Shootout place.
O’Meara-Hunt was fifth for Miami at 1:21.115, just 0.040 seconds outside the cut-off. Tara Pacheco was sixth for Drogba at 1:21.663. Both teams were eliminated. The four hundredths of a second that separated Miami from the Shootout was the afternoon’s cruelest margin.
Pole Shootout
Wind had risen to 9.4 kph by the time the four-team Pole Shootout began, up from 3.2 kph in the Semi-Finals. Wyatt improved on his third attempt to post 1:18.667, the quickest pilot time across the entire qualifying day, and AlUla took pole by 0.247 seconds over Price’s Westbrook. Duncan gave Monaco a composed third place in 1:20.308. Stark faced a more difficult session than Munnings had in Q2, the windier conditions contributing to a 1:22.459 for fourth.
Saturday’s Group Stages
The qualifying classification determines Saturday’s group allocations. Brady and Aoki, both eliminated in the Quarter-Finals, are in different groups and face contrasting routes back to the Finals.
Group 1: AlUla (P1), Sierra (P4), Miami (P5), Aoki (P8), Rafa (P9)
Group 2: Westbrook (P2), Monaco (P3), Drogba (P6), Brady (P7), Blue Rising (P10)
Pole Shootout Classification
| Pos | Pilot | Team | Time | Gap | Kph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rusty Wyatt | Team AlUla championed by LeBron James | 1:18.667 | – | 64.3 |
| 2 | Sara Price | Westbrook Racing | 1:18.914 | +0.247 | 64.1 |
| 3 | Oban Duncan | Team Monaco | 1:20.308 | +1.641 | 63.0 |
| 4 | Erik Stark | Sierra Racing Club | 1:22.459 | +3.792 | 61.4 |
Full Qualifying Classification
| Pos | Team | Pilots | Eliminated | Best Time | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team AlUla championed by LeBron James | Nerea Martí / Rusty Wyatt | – | 1:18.667 | 3 |
| 2 | Westbrook Racing | Sara Price / Lucas Ordoñez | – | 1:18.914 | 2 |
| 3 | Team Monaco | Oban Duncan / Maxime Nocher | – | 1:20.308 | 1 |
| 4 | Sierra Racing Club | Catie Munnings / Erik Stark | – | 1:22.459 | 0 |
| 5 | Team Miami powered by Magnus | Rianna O’Meara-Hunt / Timmy Hansen | Semi-Finals | 1:21.115 | 0 |
| 6 | Team Drogba Global Africa | Tara Pacheco* / Micah Wilkinson | Semi-Finals | 1:21.663 | 0 |
| 7 | Team Brady | Emma Kimiläinen / Sam Coleman | Quarter-Finals | 1:20.248 | 0 |
| 8 | Aoki Racing Team | Sara Misir / Dani Clos | Quarter-Finals | 1:20.389 | 0 |
| 9 | Team Rafa | Cris Lazarraga / Tom Chiappe | Time Trials | 1:23.449 | 0 |
| 10 | Team Blue Rising | Mashael Al-Obaidan / John Peeters | Time Trials | – | 0 |
*Reserve pilot replacing Ieva Millere-Hagin
How E1 Qualifying Works
Stage 1: Qualifying Time Trials – All 10 teams, four 20-minute sessions. Teams ranked by average of both pilots’ best laps. Bottom 2 eliminated.
Stage 2: Q1 (Quarter-Finals) – Top 8 teams, two 20-minute sessions (groups of 4). Individual timed runs in reverse order, 2 non-consecutive attempts per team. Bottom 2 eliminated.
Stage 3: Q2 (Semi-Finals) – Top 6 teams, two 15-minute sessions (groups of 3). Same format as Q1. Bottom 2 eliminated.
Stage 4: Pole Shootout – Final 4 teams, single 20-minute session. Each completes 2 timed laps in inverted order. Determines P1-P4 for Race Day. Championship points: 3-2-1.
Race Day Impact: Final qualifying result determines Saturday’s Group Stage allocation. Group 1: P1, P4, P5, P8, P9. Group 2: P2, P3, P6, P7, P10.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
