SHARJAH, UAE – This weekend’s Road to Sharjah-Grand Prix of Sharjah on Khalid Lagoon will decide the Teams’ Championship and the Fast Lap and Pole Position trophies, after Team Sweden’s Jonas Andersson clinched his second world title in Sardinia with a round to spare.
The 2023 UIM F1H2O World Championship has seen 10 teams and 22 drivers race in Indonesia, China, France and Italy. Andersson, champion in 2021 and narrowly beaten in Sharjah last year, recovered from eighth in Indonesia to win in Zhengzhou, on the River Saône in Mâcon and from start to finish in Sardinia.
He has also fought two sensational BRM qualifying battles with Team Abu Dhabi’s Shaun Torrente and arrives with an 18-point lead in the BRM Pole Position Trophy.
The Teams’ title
Runners-up to Team Abu Dhabi in 2019, 2021 and 2022, Team Sweden are favourites for a first Teams’ title. Andersson and Kalle Viippo have 65 points and an 11-point lead over the Sharjah Team’s Sami Seliö and Ferdinand Zandbergen, racing at their sponsor’s home venue, with both drivers’ results counting.
Peter Morin and Brent Dillard have lifted the China CTIC Team to third, 19 points back. Team Abu Dhabi, Teams’ champions six times in seven seasons (2015, 2017–2019 and 2021–2022), are 21 points behind, with the Victory Team’s Erik Stark and Ahmed Al-Fahim fifth, 27 points adrift.
The fight for second
Five drivers can still finish runner-up. Zandbergen has three straight podiums – third in China, second in France and third in Olbia – after retiring in Indonesia, shares the Fast Lap Trophy lead with Andersson and leads Stark by four points. Stark opened with a podium on Lake Toba, then took fourth in China and fifth in France and Italy.
Morin, six points behind Zandbergen, has two fourths and a second in Sardinia. Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qamzi is fifth after fifth in Indonesia and third in France, despite missing China and finishing eighth in Sardinia. Poland’s Bartek Marszalek began with a maiden pole and win in Indonesia but has slipped to fifth.
Defending champion Torrente is seventh after a one-race yellow-card suspension in Sardinia, his highlight second in Zhengzhou. The three-time champion arrives straight from a UIM Class 3 offshore race in Khor Fakkan, chasing a 12th Grand Prix win or a 31st podium.
The rest of the field
Filip Roms is eighth, a point ahead of fellow Finn and double champion Sami Seliö, whose season has been hit by boat damage in China and France and engine trouble in Sardinia after second in Indonesia. Dillard has four top-10 finishes in his first season replacing Philippe Chiappe, and Italian Alberto Comparato scored in China and Sardinia, where he won his sprint race and finished fourth. Australian Grant Trask, replacing Alec Weckström since Indonesia, is 12th after two seventh places.
Marit Strømøy’s new DAC with a Mercury Racing four-stroke 360 Apex V8 lifted her season; she is tied on five points with Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al-Qemzi, who also won a fourth UIM F2 world title this year. Brock Cohen and Ahmed Al-Fahim have three points each, Viippo and Alexandre Bourgeot have also scored, while Duarte Benavente, Ben Jelf and Cédric Deguisne are yet to score.
Action starts with a one-hour extra free practice at 14:00 on Friday, December 8.