Victory Team win UIM F1H2O Teams' C'ship, Torrente tops 2nd sprint race

The Victory Team's Shaun Torrente earned victory in the second of the 16-lap sprint races at the Sharjah Grand Prix in perfect water conditions on Khalid Lagoon on Saturday.

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The result and fifth position for teammate Alec Weckstrom confirmed a first ever UIM F1H2O Teams' Championship title for the Dubai-based Victory Team on the eve of the final Grand Prix of the season.

The previous best result was third place behind the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team and Mad-Croc Baba Racing in 2016.

Torrente is now a strong favourite to win his fourth Drivers' World Championship and heads into the two-man showdown on the lagoon with a 14-point cushion over Team Sweden's Jonas Andersson.

A delighted Torrente said: "Dewalt and I have been working on qualifying, propellers and starts and that’s it. The boat ran great and I was lap counting, counting them down one-by-one. I am going to treat tomorrow like the rest of the year. If the win presents itself to me, I will go for the win. Jonas is really tough though. We have around 36 laps or so to do tomorrow. I need to remember, the ultimate goal is to win a fourth World Championship. If everything goes okay, we can make it happen."

The Sharjah Team's Rusty Wyatt had persevered with the new Sharjah-designed boat in qualifying and was delighted to finish second behind Torrente.