When Gordon Sutherland, the UIM Sports Commissioner presiding over this weekend’s activities on the water at the Grand Prix of Portugal asked the seventeen drivers to take it easy today out there, it obviously fell on deaf ears as within the first hour of ‘Free Practice’ three boats crashed out and one headed back to the race pits with damage at the rear of its left sponson.
Mette Bjerknaes was the first driver to call upon the services of the rescue team when for the first time in eight years of racing she flipped over. “We were trying a brand new propeller and it was running so loose I could feel the boat getting away from me” said Bjerknaes. “Perhaps I was over confident but now I know where the limit is. Normally in those situations you just back off the throttle and the boat comes back to you. On this occasion the prop just dug in and over I went. I certainly finished the season with a bang.”
Just minutes after the session re-start Uvis Slakteris, who was one of the drivers with a strong chance of finishing this season with a third place in the UIM F2 World Championship table, saw his hopes come to a grinding halt when Fabrice Boulier didn’t see the fast charging Latvian going into turn five at the far end of the course and the pair collided. “He just closed the door on me” said Slakteris. “I saw him go wide around the turn, then he just cut in at the last minute, I’m devastated.”
Next to head back to the pits with a broken boat was Bimba Sjoholm. Her Molgaard hull had cracked the rear left sponson but she is confident that her team will be able to fix it overnight.
The race officials are now hopeful that this afternoon’s Qualifying Session will pass off without incident and even though there will be just thirteen boats running they will still go through the Q1-Q2-Q3 process to set the start grid for tomorrows Grand Prix of Portugal.
