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Saturday, August 16: Victories in the opening Motos in their Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Gp1, Runabout GP1 and Freestyle categories fell to Benedicte Drange, Quinten Bossche, François Medori and Roberto Mariani at the Grand Prix of Indonesia in Balige on Saturday afternoon.

Opening Ski Ladies GP1 Moto win for Drange

Benedicte Drange lined up on pole in choppy, deep-water conditions for the opening Ski Ladies GP1 Moto ahead of World Champion Jasmiin Ypraus, Jessica Chavanne, Estelle Poret, Naomi Benini, River Varner, Virginie Morlaes, Sofie Borgström and Janina Johansson. Joana Graça did not start.

Drange took the hole shot from a flying Poret, Ypraus, Benini and Varner. Chavanne found herself down in eighth after a tricky start. The French girl recovered well though and climbed to sixth, as Ypraus overhauled Poret with a clever lane choice to snatch second place.  

By lap five, Drange had stretched her lead over the Estonian to 3.681 seconds with Poret, Benini, Varner and Chavanne completing the top six positions. But Ypraus took a tumble on the fifth lap and that enabled Drange to increase her lead to 24.327 seconds over Poret, with Benini moving into third and Ypraus managing to salvage fourth place with Chavanne overhauling Varner to grab fifth.

Drange held on to confirm a comfortable 27.329-second win from Ypraus, who mounted a stunning late recovery from a trip into Lake Toba to snatch second from Poret and Benini. Chavanne came home in fifth ahead of Varner, Morlaes, Borgström and Johansson.

Drange said: “This is a very good start to the season. The speed is there, the ski is working, the body is working and thanks to everyone around, me mechanics and my family. I think this will be a really good season.”

Bossche takes opening Ski GP1 Moto from pole

World Champion Quinten Bossche lined up on pole for the pontoon start for the first of the Ski GP1 Motos but the Belgian had formidable opposition from the likes of Jéremy Poret, Mickael Poret, Valentin Dardillat and Alex Barret at the get-go. Dag Martin Drange was not among the 18 starters.

Bossche retained his advantage to snatch the hole shot from Jéremy and Mickael Poret, Dardillat and Barret. Bossche and Jéremy Poret began to pull away from the chasing group, as Mickael Poret retained third and Toshi O’Hara and Oliver Koch Hansen passed Dardillat to grab fourth and fifth positions. Thomas Bento struggled to a standstill at the rear of the field with engine issues and Soshi Sato took a tumble into the water and slipped to 17th. Barret also fell into the water and plummeted down the running order to an eventual 11th.

By lap four, Bossche had stretched his lead over Jéremy Poret to 10.528 seconds and Oliver Koch Hansen and O’Hara both overtook Mickael Poret to take third and fourth.

Bossche held on to claim a stunning 19.994-second win from Oliver Koch Hansen, Jéremy Poret, O’Hara and Mickael Poret. Dardillat finished sixth and Alec Enderli, Ander-Hubert Lauri, Yoni Hamelin and Anthony Beernaut rounded off the final top 10. Benjamin Scharff and Axel Courtois were just outside the top 10 in 11th and 12th overall.

But Beernaut was deemed to have cut the course and incurred a two-lap penalty. Dardillat fared even worse and was awarded four laps of penalties for straying on to an alternate course. The top five was unaffected but Enderli climbed to sixth ahead of Lauri, Hamelin, Scharff and Courtois.

The triumphant Belgian said: “This is the first time with the new boat in this type of conditions. It was very good, a very nice hole shot and I was comfortable. I was leading Jéremy and then I saw he got passed by Oliver. I am a little anxious for tomorrow. I think Oliver’s ski is a little bit more powerful than mine going into the first turn.”

Medori opens his World Championship campaign with first Runabout GP1 Moto win

György Kasza had suffered a cruel engine failure early in his Endurance challenge earlier this week but the Hungarian had some consolation with pole position for the opening Runabout GP1 Moto. He lined up ahead of defending World Champion Samuel Johansson, François Medori, Jéremy Perez and Pierre-François Savelli. Khalid Al-Maazmi and Robin Laforge were not among the 17 starters.

The start was delayed slightly after an extraordinary situation occurred when the start pontoon became detached from the harbour wall and began to drift on to the course through the sheer pulling power of the skis on the start. Kasza claimed the hole shot from the restart and held the lead from Johansson, Medori, Perez and Savelli.

Medori overtook Johansson to grab second place and maintained the pressure on Kasza, as the leaders held their positions into lap three. Ruben Jimenez Riquelme held sixth ahead of Rasmus Koch Hansen, Juan Cruz Lezcano, Andrzej Wisniewski and Martin Doulík.

Medori found a way to pass a stuttering Kasza at the start of lap five and the Corsican pharmacist edged clear over the next couple of laps. The top five had pulled well clear of the chasing pack but Jimenez Riquelme hit trouble and retired and Lezcano moved up to sixth ahead of Rasmus Koch Hansen, Guillaume Hemain, Doulík and Wisniewski.

Kasza broke the steering on his ski and the Hungarian’s demise lifted Johansson, Perez, Savelli and Lezcano into second, third, fourth and fifth but Medori’s advantage had grown to 11.550 seconds. Rasmus Koch Hansen pulled out after eight laps.

The Corsican sporting all-rounder held on to claim a 5.354-second win with his great rival Johansson coming home in second ahead of Perez, Savelli and Lezcano – the top ten amazingly lapped all their rivals. Hemain snatched sixth and Doulík, Wisniewski, Tory Snyder and Linus Lindberg rounded off the top 10 in deteriorating water conditions and big waves.

Medori said: “The race was really hard. The conditions were complicated with a lot of waves. We start in fourth position but I managed to pass Jéremy and Samuel and, after, Kasza. I tried to make a little gap. It was really long and hard and I need to stay really focused and do the same thing tomorrow.”

Penalties were awarded after the Moto: Lezcano was docked two laps for course cutting, Egidijus Kirilevicius was handed two laps for a course violation and Lindberg was disqualified for running in the wrong direction on the course. The top four was unaffected but Hemain climbed to fifth ahead of Doulík, Wisniewski, Snyder, Jean Baptiste Baldassari and Mario Lamy. Lezcano slipped to 11th ahead of rookie Jay Finlinson and Kirilevicius.

Mariani grabs Moto 1 Freestyle win

European Champion Roberto Mariani stunned his main rival Rashid Al-Mulla by grabbing a comfortable victory in the opening Freestyle Moto. The Italian carded 198 points on the judges’ cards for the variety, content and quality of his on-water discipline and that was enough to earn the 25 championship points.

Fellow countryman Massimo Accumolo was adjudged to have done enough to take second place with 173 points and Team Abu Dhabi’s Al-Mulla scored only 167 points on this occasion and finished third. Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes had missed the pole position session but earned 113 points for finishing fourth in Moto 1.

The second of the Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski GP1 Motos take place on Sunday morning.