Five boats flipped over. Seven drivers never saw the finish line. And when the dust – or rather, the spray – finally settled over Cagliari's Gulf of the Angels, it was Sharjah's team standing on top of the world.

Stefan Arand came through the carnage to win the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy, the opening round of the 2026 UIM F1H2O World Championship, with teammate Grant Trask right behind him in second. It was the kind of race that leaves you wondering how anyone got to the finish at all.

The favourites unravel

By lap eight, defending world champion Shaun Torrente had already exited the race. So was Rusty Wyatt, Sharjah's own third driver, who had looked sharp all weekend. The rough conditions off the Sardinian coast chewed through the field without mercy — strong winds, difficult seas, and a circuit returning to the calendar for the first time in over two decades made sure of that.

Of the 18 drivers who started, only 11 made it home. The rest left their afternoons somewhere on the water between barrel rolls and broken machinery.

Arand never blinks

Through all of it, Arand barely flinched. The Estonian simply read the race better than everyone else, managing the restarts, holding his nerve through the multiple stoppages, and pulling away when it mattered.

Trask, the Australian who had barely sat in the Sharjah Team boat before Friday morning, grabbed second. Poland's Bartek Marszalek of Stromoy Racing narrowly secured third place.

H2O Racing's own officials called it one of the most dramatic and challenging opening rounds in years. The Sharjah team referred to it as an ideal beginning.