“That win was much tougher than last year” said a triumphant Pierre Lundin as he made his way down from the podium presentation held at the harbour side in Tonsberg, Norway. “The poor visibility just made it really difficult to see the water conditions and I nearly got caught out a lap before Rupp Temper crashed out.”
Lundin admitted that there was a great deal of luck involved in his second victory of the season. “For both drivers to crash out ahead of me was really not what I expected, perhaps it made up for the bad day I had in my office yesterday.”
In a frenetic forty four lap battle the lead changed no less than three times and saw yellow flags being flown for various incidents. The first time after Konstantin Ustinov took out one of the turn buoys opposite the harbour side restaurants and a slightly longer period following Christian Carlsen’s barrel roll.
Pole sitter Erik Edin led for half the race until he became another victim of the rough conditions resulting in a spectacular somersault. To the spectators amazement the Swede hit the throttle as his Molgaard landed the right way up and continued on his way, minus its rear cowling. “As the boat settled down I just hear my radio man yell go, go, go” said Edin. “I told him that the cockpit was half full with water and he replied that they would worry about that at the finish.” To his credit he managed to bring his stricken boat home to finish in third place, completing those final laps without any power assistance to his steering.
Britain’s Matt Palfreyman was back to his best, pleasing the crowds with a bravado performance of driving that earned him much praise at last years race. He briefly lead the race from Lundin, when the Swede was caught out by the conditions but eventually had to settle for second. “This result is dedicated to my team. They have all put so much work in to help me get on to the podium today. At one stage today I did actually think I could win this, I really believe that this BaBa boat has so much potential so now I’m looking forward to racing Pierre in Lithuania at the end of the month.”
For the Tønsberg Event Director and UIM F2 competitor, Frode Sundsdal, the fairytale home win didn’t materialise today but he certainly gave it his best shot. In the run down to the first turn on the opening lap he was squeezed out and had to back off, dropping almost to rear of the field. Mechanical issues then meant he was unable to mount any significant challenge and had to settle for fifteenth place.
It was the turn of another Norwegian driver to make the headlines when Mette Brandt Bjerknæs drove the best race of her career to finish in seventh place and remarkably score her first ever UIM F2 World Championships points.
Tønsberg once again proved to be an exciting venue with a tricky race course to compete on but perhaps the most remarkable thing that no one could have predicted was that this year’s podium positions would be identical to those from a year ago.
The UIM F2 World Championship now moves onto to Zarasai in Lithuania, where Lundin took the 2015 European Championship title. So will we see him climb to the top step once again as he bids to secure his World title or will his fellow country-man Erik Edin once again wrestle the lead back again?
