Saturday, 6 September, IBIZA: Teddy Pons produced a brilliant performance to take his first win in Runabout GP1 on the UIM-ABP tour in heat 1 of the Mediterranean Grand Prix and move into first place in the title race.
The Frenchman trailed countryman and pre-race Championship leader Jeremy Perez for four laps but then hit the front and despite consistent pressure from Perez throughout the next 16 laps with his lead cut to under two seconds in the closing stages, held off the onslaught to run out the winner.
Behind the lead two, Spanish rider Jordi Tomas Jimenez and defending World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq traded places, Abdulrazzaq grabbing the advantage on lap 4, the Spaniard’s challenge fizzling out on lap 12, retiring a lap later.
Sweden’s Lars Akerblom produced one of his best rides on the tour, moving up and through the field from 13th place at the end of the first lap, scything his way through the pack to finish in fourth ahead of Francois Medori, with Alejandro Molina grabbing the bragging rights as the first Spanish rider past the chequered flag.
In Ski GP1 the title race is hotting up and turning into a classic with America’s Chris MacClugage clearly on a roll after winning the Italian Grand Prix, simply outclassing the field to win unchallenged from start-to-finish by 23 seconds from his main rival and Championship leader, Jeremy Poret.
With MacClugage running away with heat 1 Poret faced pressure from Spain’s Nacho Armillas who in turn had Portugal’s Tiago Sousa snapping at his heels. Poret held firm but Armillas felt the pressure, making a mistake on the last lap to let Sousa through to grab third.
The middle order saw Italy’s Alberto Monti hold off Morgan Poret to take fifth, with Tomaz Kete winning a three way fight over Steven Loiodice and Alex Barret.
Spain’s European Champion Sandra Fernandez was the best of the ladies, finishing ahead of Estelle Poret and Marta Sorrentino, on a bad day for the points leader Jennifer Menard who was disqualified.
Rok Florjancic once again delivered a strong performance scoring in the high eighties to win and remain unbeaten in Freestyle, brother Nac taking second spot ahead of Roberto Mariani.
For the full set of results go to aquabike.net