2024 F1H2O Grand Prix of Zhengzhou, China
by F1H2O 25 Oct 2024 10:46 BST
17-19 October 2024
2024 F1H2O Grand Prix of Zhengzhou, China © F1H2O
The Chinese city of Zhengzhou held the fifth round of this year's UIM F1H2O World Championship on October 17th-19th.
Zhengzhou is one of the eight historical capitals of China and has a rich culture, a long history and is known as being the cradle of Chinese civilization.
The city borders the Yellow River to the north and Mount Songshan to the west and is an integral part of the core area of the Central Plains Economic Zone. It has a population well in excess of 12.6 million people and is a major city for scientific research and home to several key national universities.
Team Vietnam's Jonas Andersson took full advantage of retirements for his title rivals Rusty Wyatt and Erik Stark to lead a yellow-flag interrupted New Development Grand Prix of Zhengzhou-China from start-to-finish on the Yellow River on Saturday afternoon.
The crucial 15th career win for the Swede after an accident for Stark and a mechanical issue for Wyatt has given the defending World Champion a three-point lead in the Drivers' Championship to take to the final round in Sharjah at the start of December. Team Vietnam now also leads the Teams' Championship from the Sharjah Team and Strømøy Racing.
The high rate of attrition in blustery conditions failed to prevent the China CTIC Team's Peter Morin from holding off the two-time World Champion Sami Seliö to snatch second position. That result enabled the Frenchman to move ahead of Stark and into third in the Drivers' Championship. Morin said: "It was a very difficult race. The water conditions were not good, very much windy and we needed to be careful. We could not attack Jonas. It was important to stay in second place. It was a rough race but we started second and I am happy to finish second."
Seliö added: "It was a very hard race and we finish on the podium. The minimum target is always to finish on the podium. When I finish, most of the time I can do it. It was great!"