SHARJAH, UAE – Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente clinched a fourth UIM F1H2O World Championship at a thrilling Road to Sharjah – Grand Prix of Sharjah, despite retiring with a broken engine after just 14 laps on Sunday afternoon.
While the Dubai-based Victory Team celebrated the American’s title and its first ever F1H2O Teams’ Championship, race day belonged to the Sharjah Team. 23-year-old Estonian Stefan Arand drove the race of his career to win by 12.594 seconds on only his ninth Grand Prix start.
Team Sweden’s Grant Trask split the two Sharjah boats in second over 40 laps, and Canadian Rusty Wyatt‘s third place secured him third in the Drivers’ Championship.
Torrente matched the four world titles of Scott Gillman and Alex Carella, becoming joint second most successful driver in history behind 10-time champion Guido Cappellini.
There was a lot of work for this fourth World Championship. 380 days ago, when we signed to come back, we said we would win the World Championship. Not if, but when. 780 days ago, I left this place on a stretcher and I didn’t want my career to end like that. I have worked for two years to get back to being here. It means such a lot. You never stop fighting. Right now, I am a four-time World Champion. The Victory Team believed in me and took a chance on me. Here we are…
Shaun Torrente
No words. That definitely wasn’t on my bingo cards for today but I couldn’t be happier, obviously. It’s an extreme honour to win in front of the home crowd and to make everybody proud. I feel like this was coming for the entire season. We were here with the pace in Shanghai and then we had an unfortunate engine change. It’s an amazing feeling to end the year on such a high.
Stefan Arand
When that yellow (flag) came out, I said to myself ‘I want this’ and I ended up getting it. I knew Rusty was behind me and I backed off a little to save it to the end and then I heard that Grant was behind me. I pumped up the pace again and kept up that gap to the finish.
Stefan Arand
We got third in the World Championship and we got third here today. It was one heck of a race. It didn’t start right and it was very rough at the beginning but I am just happy to stay dry today. We will have to see all this data and decide where we want to go next year.
Rusty Wyatt
Andersson’s title bid fades
Outgoing champion Jonas Andersson started on pole and kept the lead after a first-lap yellow flag, but could not capitalise on Torrente’s retirement. Needing first or second, he struggled with a loss of power, fell behind several rivals and finished sixth – runner-up in the championship for the third time in six seasons.
I broke something that we should not break. I don’t want to discuss it but it’s not any fault of my team. It was broken right from the start and then it got worse and worse and I was not able to push for the win. I was thinking about stopping but I am proud of the guys. You are not going to be World Champion when you have three bad races in a season.
Jonas Andersson
China CTIC Team’s Peter Morin ended the season strongly in fourth. Torrente’s team-mate Alec Weckström fought back from 16th after an engine change to finish fifth on the water, but a two-place penalty for not holding his lane at the start dropped him to seventh, promoting Red Devil-SMC F1 Team’s Ferdinand Zandbergen to fifth ahead of Andersson. Maverick Racing had its best result of the year, with Cédric Deguisne eighth and Alexandre Bourgeot ninth. Only nine of 19 starters finished.
How the race unfolded
Forty laps would decide between Torrente and Andersson. Andersson started on pole ahead of Torrente, but fifth would be enough for the American regardless. Weckström expected to start second until an engine change dropped him to 16th, ahead of Brent Dillard and Team Abu Dhabi‘s Mansoor Al-Mansoori. Marit Strømøy was a late non-starter after losing compression in her four-stroke APX V8, with no time to change it.
Torrente made a superb start in a rising wind, but the race was immediately yellow-flagged when Bartek Marszalek took the commitment buoy too tightly and rolled out. As no lap had been completed, Andersson was restored to the lead for the lap-two restart, with Team Abu Dhabi’s Erik Stark, Trask, Wyatt and Arand next and Weckström up to 13th.
Stark retired the Team Abu Dhabi DAC on lap four with a propeller problem, and Brent Dillard stopped a lap later with power issues. Arand passed Torrente around quarter distance, with Andersson just 2.145 seconds ahead. Sami Seliö retired his Sharjah-designed boat on lap eight with power steering trouble, and Al-Mansoori also dropped out, completing a tough day for Team Abu Dhabi.
The title fight was thrown open on lap 15 when Torrente stopped with a broken engine, leaving Andersson needing a top-two finish. After the yellow, racing resumed on lap 18 and Arand dramatically took the lead, with Wyatt and Trask also passing the Swede. Andersson then lost places to Weckström, Zandbergen and Ben Jelf as the Sharjah duo pulled away in front of their home crowd.
Arand led Wyatt by 5.303 seconds on lap 25. Jelf retired on lap 23, and Alberto Comparato followed on lap 24 with a fuel pump issue, leaving 10 boats running. Trask passed Wyatt for second and closed to 6.786 seconds with eight laps left, but Arand steadied the gap from lap 33. Duarte Benavente withdrew four laps from the end, and Arand sealed a memorable maiden victory, with Trask second and Wyatt completing a Sharjah Team 1–3.
Grand Prix of Sharjah result
- Stefan Arand (EST) Sharjah Team – 40 laps
- Grant Trask (AUS) Team Sweden – +12.594sec
- Rusty Wyatt (CAN) Sharjah Team – +24.037sec
- Peter Morin (FRA) China CTIC Team – +27.915sec
- Ferdinand Zandbergen (NED) Red Devil-SMC F1 Team – 1 lap behind
- Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden – 2 laps behind
- Alec Weckström (FIN) Victory Team – +44.699sec (two-position penalty)
- Cédric Deguisne (FRA) Maverick Racing – 3 laps behind
- Alexandre Bourgeot (FRA) Maverick Racing – 3 laps behind
2025 World Championship – final standings (top 10)
- Shaun Torrente (USA) Victory Team – 99pts
- Jonas Andersson (SWE) Team Sweden – 90pts
- Rusty Wyatt (CAN) Sharjah Team – 86pts
- Stefan Arand (EST) Sharjah Team – 83pts
- Alec Weckström (FIN) Victory Team – 82pts
- Grant Trask (AUS) Team Sweden – 67pts
- Peter Morin (FRA) China CTIC Team – 56pts
- Erik Stark (SWE) Team Abu Dhabi – 51pts
- Bartek Marszalek (POL) Strømøy Racing – 42pts
- Ferdinand Zandbergen (NED) Red Devil-SMC F1 Team – 33pts