Three-time world champion Jonas Andersson claimed pole position at the Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan, putting in a dominant run across all three qualifying rounds at Issyk-Kul before a race lap had been turned.
The session opened in suitably ceremonious fashion, with the President of Kyrgyzstan, His Excellency Sadyr Japarov, addressing packed crowds alongside UIM President Rafaelle Chiulli, H2O Founder Nicolò di San Germano, and the heads of state of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Sunny skies and calm water greeted the eighteen drivers when Q1 got underway.
Team Sharjah made an early impression. Grant Trask set the opening benchmark before Stefan Arand and then Rusty Wyatt each took turns at the top of the table, giving the Sharjah outfit a clean sweep of the early qualifying leads. That run ended when current world champion Shaun Torrente clocked a 52.011-second lap to put the Victory Team driver in front.
The real drama in Q1 played out at the other end of the standings. The Q2 cut-off line split Team Abu Dhabi teammates Erik Stark in twelfth and Rashed Al Qemzi in thirteenth, until Stark suddenly went from twelfth to first with a lap of 51.904 seconds. Ben Jelf made a late charge but finished thirteenth, just 0.081 seconds shy of the top twelve.
Andersson wasted no time in Q2, opening with a 50.294-second lap that nobody could match. The tension again centred on the final qualifying spots, with Weckstrom clawing into sixth with little over two minutes remaining and pushing Stefan Hagin down to seventh. Hagin reached over 160km/h on his final lap but couldn't break into Q3. Alberto Comparato was equally unlucky, his best lap coming on his last run but still 0.127 seconds too slow. Rusty Wyatt failed to start Q2 altogether, ending his session in twelfth.
Q3 brought together Victory Team, Team Sharjah, and Team Abu Dhabi's Swedish duo of Stark and Andersson. Torrente led early with a 49.890-second opener, Weckstrom sitting second, 0.239 seconds back. Andersson took over on his fifth lap, bettering Torrente by 0.472 seconds. Torrente responded with his quickest lap of the session, but Andersson came back with an even sharper 48.778 seconds to close it out.
The Swede finished 0.738 seconds clear of Torrente, with Weckstrom, Stark, Trask, and Arand completing the top six.
**Qualifying results:**
| Pos | Driver | Team | |-----|--------|------| | 1 | Jonas Andersson | Team Abu Dhabi | | 2 | Shaun Torrente | Victory Team | | 3 | Alec Weckstrom | Victory Team | | 4 | Erik Stark | Team Abu Dhabi | | 5 | Grant Trask | Team Sharjah | | 6 | Stefan Arand | Team Sharjah |
