ZHENGZHOU, China: Sweden’s Jonas Andersson cruised to victory in Zhengzhou, China on Saturday to take the lead in the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship, setting up a tense climax in Sharjah in December.

Team Abu Dhabi’s Thani Al-Qemzi was among those who failed to finish an incident-paced race which saw Sharjah Team’s Rusty Wyatt lose his championship lead when halted by mechanical problems, while a collision between Victory Team drivers Erik Stark and Ahmad Al-Fahim took both of them out of the running.

Defending world champion Andersson now carries a three-point lead over Canadian rookie Wyatt into December’s final round in Sharjah, with Frenchman Peter Morin climbing to third in the standings following his second-place finish in Zhengzhou.

Al-Qemzi’s early retirement with technical issues completed a trail of misfortune in Zhengzhou for Team Abu Dhabi, for whom five-time F2 world champion Rashed Al-Qemzi (Thani’s cousin) was unable to start the Grand Prix following his problems in yesterday’s sprint race.

The team will now look to round off the season with a much-improved showing on Khalid Lagoon in Sharjah, where Thani Al-Qemzi made his F1H2O debut back in 2020, and where he finished third last year, one of his 45 podium finishes.

Andersson had already secured his second world title before the championship arrived in Sharjah last season. He went on to record his fourth successive race victory, and Wyatt will be aiming to prevent a repeat performance in two months’ time.

Sharjah Team’s Canadian rookie has been enjoying a brilliant debut season in the championship, with wins in Indonesia, Sardinia and most recently Shanghai.

He began to lose pace in the early stages in Zhengzhou, however, eventually coming to halt after 14 laps, but will look to quickly shrug off the setback in the hope of securing the drivers’ title for his team on home waters.

The penultimate round of the championship had barely got under way on Saturday when Stark and Al-Fahim collided, sending the two Victory boats out of the race, while the opening lap also saw American Brent Dillard barrel-roll to a halt.

China has been a happy hunting ground in the past for Team Abu Dhabi veteran Thani Al-Qemzi, with two of his 10 race wins arriving there, but his 157th career Grand Prix was brought to a halt after just two laps.

After securing his 13th pole position, followed quickly by victory in the sprint race on Friday, Andersson looked fully in control again on Saturday as he recorded his 15th Grand Prix win, with almost 10 seconds to spare over Morin. Finland’s two-time world champion Sami Selio took third place.