Eleven years after her first Grand Prix victory at Sharjah, Marit Stromoy is back on the F1H2O podium. The Norwegian finished third at the inaugural Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan, adding another chapter to a career that has long set her apart in the sport.
It is her sixth career podium in the championship, following her 2015 Sharjah victory, second places in Abu Dhabi in 2017 and India in 2018, and third-place finishes in Xiamen in 2019 and Portugal in 2021. She remains the only woman ever to win an F1H2O World Championship Grand Prix, and the only female driver to have stood on an F1H2O podium.
This result carried extra weight beyond those career milestones. Ahead of the 2024 season, Stromoy became the first driver to make a complete transition to the championship's new four-stroke technology, committing her Stromoy Racing team to a full redesign of the boat around an entirely different concept. The early returns were difficult, and the project demanded a patience that results alone could not always justify.
In Kyrgyzstan, that patience finally paid off.
Saturday had given little indication of what Sunday would bring. Stromoy narrowly missed progressing from Q1 in qualifying, finished sixth in her Sprint Race, and lined up 14th on the Grand Prix grid.
Then came the warm-up session. She completed more laps than any other driver and set the fastest lap among all 18 competitors. Something had clicked between driver and boat around the Lake Issyk-Kul circuit.
When the Grand Prix started, she made her move. An opening lap carried her eight positions forward to sixth, decisive and full of the racecraft that has characterised her career. After a yellow flag restart she continued to press, passing teammate Bartek Marszalek and then Erik Stark to move briefly into fourth. Stark retook the position, but Stromoy held her pace and stayed in the fight.
Her patience was rewarded when Alec Weckstrom received a one-lap penalty for failing to line up correctly for the restart and Jonas Andersson slowed. Third place was hers.
For Stromoy and her team it was the first podium for the four-stroke project they had committed to from the ground up, a reward for years of development and no small amount of faith in a concept that offered no guarantees.
Eleven years on from Sharjah, Marit Stromoy is still making history.
