Team Victory's Torrente sets pace in first practice at Jeddah F1H20 GP

The Florida-based racer Torrente carded an opening tour of 42.241 seconds - the fastest lap of the weekend thus far - in ideal water conditions

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The Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente carded the quickest lap of 42.241 seconds on his first run in the second of Thursday afternoon's free practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

In the punishing heat of an afternoon at the North Obhur Waterfront on the Red Sea, the second one-hour stint followed after a 30-minute gap and Torrente was first on to the circuit. The Florida-based racer carded an opening tour of 42.241 seconds - the fastest lap of the weekend thus far - in ideal water conditions.

Only the Red Devil-SMC Team's two-time champion Sami Seliö followed the American into action in the opening nine minutes and carded a best run of 44.702sec before being edged out by teammate Ferdinand Zandbergen (44.032sec) on the IO-minute mark.

The China CTIC Team's Peter Morin was also up to speed early in the session with just five boats posting laps in the opening 15 minutes. Morin’s new stand-in teammate, the German rookie Stefan Hagin, started his FIH2O career with three cautious laps as the clock ticked down to the 40-minute mark. He later clocked a useful run of 44.624 seconds during his 12 laps.