Alec Weckstrom of the Dubai-based Victory Team continued his impressive run in China by winning the UIM F1H2O World Championship Grand Prix of Shanghai-China. Weckstrom, who earned his maiden career win in Zhengzhou during the previous Chinese leg of the series, approached this event with significant momentum after clinching pole position in qualifying and winning the preceding Sprint Race 1.
The race began with Weckstrom converting his pole position into an early lead, followed by his teammate Shaun Torrente in second and Sharjah Team’s Stefan Arand in third. Meanwhile, world champion Jonas Andersson navigated a difficult start from the back of the grid following an engine change. Andersson’s aggressive maneuvers nearly resulted in a first-lap collision with Ben Jelf as he fought to recover positions.
Chaos briefly disrupted the second lap when China CTIC Team’s Brent Dillard flipped his boat. Dillard, trailing Rashed Al Qemzi, struggled with poor visibility from spray and failed to trim his vessel correctly, causing it to rotate and capsize. Following the restart, a major incident occurred between the Victory Team teammates. As Weckstrom took a turn wide, Torrente attempted to squeeze through an insufficient gap on the right-hander, leading to a collision that forced Torrente out of the race and damaged his title defense, while Weckstrom remained unharmed and in the lead. His visibility reduced as a result of the water’s spray, and was too slow to accelerate out of the course’s right-hander, thereby failing to get his trim out of the water and having it dip under, causing the catamaran to rotate over and ending Dillard’s race early, the American was closely trailing seventh place Rashed Al Qemzi. It did not mean Weckstrom’s lead was secure; Arand was now on his tail waiting for the restart, hoping to secure a second Grand Prix win of the season, but just because Torrente was now out.
The race remained tightly contested as Arand applied pressure immediately following the restart. Despite the two drivers racing side-by-side during the early turns, Weckstrom successfully held his defensive line. With 16 laps remaining, a high-stakes moment saw Weckstrom brush against the lapped boat of Ben Jelf after losing control in a turn, yet he managed to maintain his composure and the lead. Shortly after, mechanical failures stalled Rusty Wyatt’s boat, triggering another yellow flag period that also ended the competition for Jelf and Al Qemzi. Before the yellow flag, Weckstrom had built up a small lead of almost three seconds which was duly wiped out, with all the drivers bunching up in anticipation of the race’s restart. Blocking potential overtakes, and wearing down Arand, weckstrom managed to hold his own. The two were never separated by more than three seconds throughout the remainder of the race, but even though Weckstrom put some distance between himself and Arand.
Upon the final restart with 11 laps to go, the field consisted of only nine boats. Grant Trask and Andersson capitalized on the situation by executing a triple overtake on Alberto Comparato, Stefan Hagin, and Sami Selio to climb into third and fourth positions. Despite battling a broken propeller for the remainder of the race, Weckstrom successfully fended off a persistent Arand.
Weckstrom crossed the finish line 1.096 seconds ahead of Arand, securing his victory and rounding out a dominant weekend. While Weckstrom celebrated his win, Arand’s second-place performance propelled him to the top of the Drivers’ World Championship standings. Grant Trask claimed the final spot on the podium, finishing ahead of fourth-placed Andersson.
