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Saturday, September 6: Benedicte Drange, Quinten Bossche and François Medori made the perfect start to their quests for honours at the Grand Prix of Vichy, France with opening Moto victories in the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 categories on Saturday afternoon.
Drange earns seventh successive European Ski Ladies GP1 victory
Runaway UIM-ABP European Continental Aquabike Championship leader Jessica Chavanne had pole position for the opening Ski Ladies GP1 Moto but had ceded the advantage to the in-form Benedicte Drange after the opening lap. Estelle Poret slotted into third ahead of Lou Dardillat and Naomi Benini but World Champion Jasmiin Ypraus languished at the rear of the eight-girl field behind Virginie Morlaes and Joana Graça.
The Estonian managed to pass Graça on lap three and began to apply the pressure on Morlaes, as Drange extended her lead over Chavanne to 4.18 seconds into the fourth lap. The Norwegian maintained her advantage to the chequered flag to take the Moto win by 8.68 seconds from Chavanne with Poret finishing third after 11 laps of racing.
After missing the opening round of the European Championship in Poland, Drange’s Moto win was her seventh successive one after six straight wins in Portugal and Hungary. Chavanne remains the firm favourite to lift the European title, however, and was able to extend her lead over Morlaes and Ypraus with two Motos remaining.
Benini and Ypraus came home in fourth and fifth ahead of Morlaes, Dardillat and Graça but Ypraus suffered additional disappointment after the heat when she was docked 25 seconds for a jump start. That dropped the Estonian to eighth with Morlaes, Dardillat and Graça moving up to fifth, sixth and seventh.
Bossche earns Ski GP1 Moto 1 win from pole position
Mickael Poret headed into the opening Ski Division GP1 Moto with a 10-point lead over Oliver Koch Hansen in the European Championship. Pole sitter Quinten Bossche was realistically looking at finishing third after a pair of non-finishes in Portugal.
Only 18 of the 20 registered riders took the start of the Moto but Bossche made a strong getaway and began to pull clear of Mickael Poret, Koch Hansen, Jéremy Poret and Tanguy Meziere. Alec Barret struggled at the rear of the field and retired after two laps. By lap three, the Belgian bomber had increased his lead to 10.59 seconds and he held on to take the 25 championship points and the early lead in the Grand Prix with a 31.77-second win.
Third place for Mickael Poret enabled the Frenchman to stay eight points clear of runner-up Koch Hansen in the championship standings. Jéremy Poret, Yoni Hamelin, Kerto Kase, Valentin Dardillat, Paul Thomas, Meziere and Phil Segers rounded off the top 10 finishers. Benôit Meliani failed to finish.
Bossche said: “It was very tiring. I just built this boat on Monday and Tuesday and I am very happy to come here and win Moto 1. There are still some things I have to adjust on the boat and some more development but I am happy because we showed some good speed out there.”
Koch Hansen added: “I had a really bad start but I managed to stay behind Mickael and follow him. I know that to win this European title I need to be in front of him. So far so good.”
Medori eases to victory in opening Runabout GP1 Moto
Despite holding pole, François Medori is not in contention for this year’s European Championship and the destiny of this year’s Runabout GP1 title will be decided between Jéremy Perez, Robin Laforge and Pierre-François Savelli. Perez headed into the opening Moto with a commanding 34-point cushion.
Medori took full advantage of his starting position and headed out into the distance from the outset, as Perez slotted into second ahead of Savelli, Petr Dryják and Laforge.
As Medori hung to seal the win by 4.16 seconds with a steering issue on his ski, Perez was happy to sit back, conserve his ski and pick up valuable championship points. Even though he was passed by Savelli near the end, the Frenchman still takes a massive championship lead into the final two Motos on Sunday.
Laforge came home in fourth with Dryják, Martin Doulík, Florian Bardoux and Lino Araújo filling the remaining spots in the top eight.
Medori said: “The race was very hard. I start in first position with Jéremy and Pierre-François behind me. I push to the maximum to try and get a little gap and then after about 10 minutes I had a steering problem. I tried to finish like I can. I had a problem with my ski and I need to fix it for Moto 2.”