Torrente Wins Kyrgyzstan Grand Prix, Takes Championship Lead

Shaun Torrente won the Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, holding off Erik Stark by 0.047 seconds after a race that swung from a commanding lead to a nine-boat scrap in the space of one yellow flag. The result also does something the race itself didn’t quite manage to settle on the water: it hands Torrente the championship lead, four points clear of Stefan Arand, who retired from the race that mattered most to his title defence.

Race Results

A Lead Won Twice

Torrente had the better of the start, going wheel to wheel with pole-sitter Jonas Andersson into the first corner and coming out ahead, a lead that was already 3.382 seconds after just one lap. From there he simply left the field behind, his advantage over Andersson stretching to 12 seconds inside the opening third of the race, built on a 53.254 lap that stood as the fastest of the weekend from Friday’s practice through to the flag.

Further back, Erik Stark spent the first 14 laps patiently trailing Alec Weckstrom for third, never letting the gap grow beyond a few seconds but unable to find a way past.

The race went yellow on lap 14, when Ben Jelf barrel-rolled his boat, and erased that entire lead. The British driver himself was unhurt. But the bunching that comes with any restart turned what had been a Torrente procession into a genuine fight, and by the time the field went back to green, Torrente’s cushion was gone and Erik Stark had jumped from fourth to second past both Andersson and team-mate Alec Weckstrom.

Torrente never rebuilt the gap. He led every lap from there to the flag, but by single tenths rather than seconds, and it was Stark, not anyone from Torrente’s own Victory Team, who spent the closing laps as the closest threat.

Stromoy Misses the Podium by 0.022 Seconds

Marit Stromoy took her best result of the season, climbing from 15th on the grid to fourth, backing up the pace she showed in Sunday morning’s warm-up, when she set the fastest lap of the entire weekend. She ran as high as third at one stage after the restart before Weckstrom reclaimed the position, and finished the race just 0.022 seconds behind him, the closest she has come to an F1H2O podium. She had shown the same speed straight after the restart too, executing a double overtake of team-mate Bartek Marszalek and then Stark to move into fourth, though Stark reclaimed the position a lap later.

Strømøy Racing’s new Mercury Racing 4-stroke motor, only fitted to the boat in the days before the weekend, was central to the story. The team’s other driver, Bartek Marszalek, backed her up with fifth, his second straight podium-challenging weekend after finishing on the rostrum at Cagliari.

Andersson’s Late Fade

Jonas Andersson’s race went the opposite way to team-mate Stark’s. The pole-sitter briefly retook second from Weckstrom straight after the restart, only to lose the position again a corner later as Weckstrom struggled to control his boat, the moment that led to Weckstrom’s penalty. With 20 laps to go, Andersson himself lost power and slowed dramatically, dropping from second all the way to seventh. He fell further to eighth once team-mate Rashed Al Qemzi came through, before snatching seventh back from Al Qemzi with an inside move at Turn 1 on the final lap.

Wyatt’s Recovery From Last

Rusty Wyatt’s ninth place was the quiet story of the afternoon. He started 18th and last after an engine change following a qualifying failure, and worked his way through the field to finish on the lead lap, one place and 0.023 seconds behind Andersson at the flag.

Championship Lead Changes Hands

Stefan Arand had led the championship by nine points coming into the weekend, on the back of his Cagliari win. His race ended on lap 18 with a mechanical problem, and with Torrente taking maximum points for the win, the standings have flipped.

It is Torrente’s first time atop the standings this season, and comes in what he has already confirmed will be his final year on the tour before retirement.