Large winds and unsafe water conditions meant Saturday’s morning practice session was cut short and then stopped as officials were forced to postpone the qualifying session due to bad weather at Evian’s Lac Leman.

Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente was among the 18 pilots who took to the waters. He managed to do five laps around the 2.08km course to record the fastest lap of 1min and 06.644 secs before he was forced to stop.

Carella also experienced the conditions during practice and insists it was a tough day.

“The wave was too long,” he said, who completed nine laps with his fastest being in the second with 1min and 08.21 seconds.

His team-mate Al-Qamzi agreed. “It was too rough and quite dangerous,” he said. “It was not possible to push. I tried but did not want to risk the boat.”

This is the second round of the competition with Philippe Chiappe winning the opener in Dubai in March. And the Frenchman insists it would be a “risk” to compete if conditions don’t improve.

“It’s very bad out there,” he said. “Impossible to drive. It’s not a good idea to go out. It’s a lottery but the race is not. The conditions are getting worse. We risk too much in these conditions. If it is like this for qualifying we will not start.”