Team Brady Takes Championship Lead with P2 in Monaco
A strong weekend in unpredictable conditions saw Team Brady take P2 and fastest lap to claim the lead in the UIM E1 World Championship with two races to go.
Difficult conditions were the theme of the weekend with a big swell, changing winds and choppy waters creating chaos in the Monaco harbour on Friday, but both pilots made the best of the rough sea, setting the fastest combined lap in the time trials and securing pole for the team.
Both Team Brady pilots Emma and Sam won their respective group races on Saturday, despite fierce and tight battles with Westbrook Racing in both contests, with Sam’s victory sending Team Brady straight into the finals and lining up in P1.
A perfectly timed start and strong driving gave Emma the first final win. The second final was delayed due to lightning and with the wind and waves picking up, a dramatic and difficult final ensued. Sam fought hard with Team Brazil for the lead over several laps of foil to foil racing but an alternate strategy in the wild waters propelled Blue Rising to the win. A strong team strategy and gutsy drive from Sam delivered second ahead of Team Brazil in third.
This result, delivered in front of Team Owner Tom Brady, puts the team at the top of the championship for the first time in 2025. In addition, thanks to its new campaign Race for Change, and partnership with4ocean Foundation, today’s result alone will mean 3000kgs of plastic gets removed from the ocean.
Tom Brady, Team Owner said: “It was a great weekend. From where we started to where we finished, I think we showed all weekend that we’re one of the top teams to beat. It was a tough race at the end but E1 is very unpredictable and a lot of our competitors barely even made it to the end so I’m really proud of the whole team. At every event we seem to keep getting better and the chemistry and communication between Sam and Emma is awesome. We’ve got a couple of races to go but we’re all very confident about what we’ve done so far and I’m so proud of the effort that the whole team puts in.”
Sam Coleman, Team Brady Pilot said, “I wanted the win, but you can’t win every one! We had had the pace to win it, but we ended up in a race with Team Brazil which was fun but hectic. I was blind for a lot of the time, you can’t deploy the boost where you want to in the wake in these conditions so we both lost time which gave the opportunity to Blue Rising, good job from them today. Well done to Emma for winning her race too, and we’ll take second, P2 overall this weekend and we’re now leading the championship – it sounds pretty good!”
Emma Kimiläinen, Team Brady Pilot said, “I am very happy with the result, the team did a great job. It’s always very nice to win your races and happy with the overall result today as it was so unpredictable, anything could have happened in the final. We learned a lot and took the Championship lead with this result which we are very happy about. It’s great that Tom has been around this weekend, his support means a lot to the team. Also was good to see my childhood friend, race pal and former team mate Valtteri Bottas who was here to support us. He had a sit in the boat and he wants to have a go so we’ll have to arrange that sometime!”