Shaun Torrente posted a 0:55.39 lap time in Xiangyang F1H2o Free Practice this morning, .25 faster than his team mate Erik Stark.

Torrente said after the 90 minute session:

This afternoon was really just about checking that the engine was running well but at the same time not trying to show too much.
We tested in Italy before coming here and everything went well.
It’s a good feeling when you know where you sit with the boat and know what your best set up is and you just hope it is going to be good enough.

Erik Stark of Sweden – Team Abu Dhabi
Photo: Vittorio Ubertone

Stark who has won the last 2 races in Evian and London commented:

It was a good afternoon, everything worked well and I think we have a more to come but I don’t know who has more.
There’s a bit of cat and mouse going and for sure there is more to come from all of us.

Jonas Andersson was third and was running in the colours of Amaravati, the capital of the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh and the host city of the UIM F1H2O Grand Prix of India.

Jonas Andersson – Team Amaravati
Photo: Vittorio Ubertone

The Swedish driver told F1H2o’s Nigel Quilter after:

The boat, the engine which is one of four I have worked on since the last race and props are feeling really good but actually I didn’t drive so well.
The course is quite easy to drive but it might make qualifying interesting because it is quite big and easy to get a clean lap in.
We will see.

Ahmed Al Hameli was running the latest Victory hull and posted fifth quickest, his team manager Scott Gillman said:

Unfortunately we started with some practice engines to test a few things but it wasn’t working so we switched Ahmed to a race engine and the improvement was immediate despite the propeller being a little small.
But we now know the direction we need to go for him and Alex Carella and we feel confident we will be up to the front tomorrow.

First Free Practice

1st) Shaun Torrente 0:55.39
2nd) Erik Stark 0:55.64
3rd) Jonas Andersson 0:55.95
4th) Thani Al Qemzi 0:56.01
5th) Ahmed Al Hameli 0:56.11
6th) Erik Edin 0:56.15
7th) Philippe Chiappe 0:56.19
8th) Grant Trask 0:56.22
9th) Marit Stromoy 0:56.54
10th) Francesco Cantando 0:57.28
11th) Duarte Benavente 0:57.44
12th) Peter Morin 0:57.48
13th) Alex Carella 0:58.28
14th) Filip Roms 0:58.72
15th) Cédric Deguisne 0:59.35
16th) Sami Selio 1:02.06
17th) Simone Bianca Schuft 1:04.28
18th) Sutthipan Sookbuangbon 1:17.13
19th) Bartek Marszalek DNS