News
Saturday, August 16: Norway’s Benedicte Drange, Belgian Quinten Bossche, Hungary’s György Kasza and Emirati Rashid Al-Mulla earned pole positions for the opening Motos in their respective Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Gp1, Runabout GP1 and Freestyle categories after some thrilling action at the start of the Grand Prix of Indonesia in Balige on Saturday morning.
The opening round of the UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship follows on directly after the thrilling three-day World Endurance Championship. Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski GP1 entrants will tackle three Motos on Saturday and Sunday with Runabout GP1 and Freestyle competitors battling it out over two.
Ski Ladies GP1 pole position for Drange
The defending European Champion Benedicte Drange laid down the benchmark of 1min 39.668sec at the start of Ski Ladies GP1 qualifying and that put the Bergen-based racer ahead of the defending World Champion Jasmiin Ypraus and Jessica Chavanne.
That lap time proved to be quite a target and the Norwegian maintained provisional pole from Ypraus, Chavanne, Estelle Poret and Naomi Benini after half the qualifying session. Ypraus ran the pole time close on her eighth lap near the end of the session but Drange had done enough to earn pole from Ypraus, Chavanne, Poret, Benini, River Varner, Virginie Morlaes, Sofie Borgström, Joana Graça and Janina Johansson.
Drange said: “There were a lot of waves but I just managed to take P1 from Jasmiin.”
"It will be a tough race between us,” added second-placed Ypraus.
A late lap of 1min 43.460sec had given Drange the bragging rights over Ypraus, Poret and Chavanne in the earlier free practice session.
Bossche earns pole in Ski GP1 qualifying
Ski GP1 qualifying was split into two sessions with nine of the 19 riders eliminated in Q1 and the surviving 10 going into Q2 to determine the pole position places.
The fastest lap of 1min 42.085sec went to the defending World Champion Quinten Bossche in Q1 but, more importantly, Alec Enderli, the Belgian duo of Anthony Beernaut and Yoni Hamelin, Thomas Bento, Soshi Sato, Maxence Russel, Ander-Hubert Lauri, Axel Courtois and Dag Martin Drange were eliminated in challenging water conditions.
Jéremy Poret laid down the gauntlet at the start of the 10-minute Q2 session with a lap of 1min 40.497sec, but he was quickly overhauled by a flying Bossche with a stunning tour of 1min 36.292sec. Alex Barret also ran quicker than his fellow Frenchman to move into second place and then Mickael Poret moved ahead of his brother.
But no-one could get anywhere near Bossche’s flying lap and the ‘Belgian bomber’ claimed pole at the start of the defence of his world title. Barret, Mickael and Jéremy Poret and Valentin Dardillat filled second, third, fourth and fifth places with Mads Koch Hansen, Felix Helgeson, Toshi O’Hara, Oliver Koch Hansen, and Benjamin Scharff wrapping up the top 10 qualifiers.
Bossche said: “Q1 and Q2 went well. Two times first so for the first outing on the new boat that was pretty good. I am looking forward to the first race. We just need a bit of luck like every time. Hopefully we can win Moto 1.”
Oliver Koch Hansen ran a late lap of 1min 43.725sec to top the times in the free practice session and pip Bossche to the fastest time by 0.459 seconds. Mickael Poret was the only rider to miss the 20-minute stint.
Kasza tops qualifying in Runabout GP1
As was the case with Ski GP1, Runabout GP1 qualifying was split into two sessions with nine of the 19 riders being eliminated in the Q1 session and the surviving 10 going through to Q2.
A fastest lap of 1min 31.458sec enabled former two-time World Champion François Medori to top the times in a frenetic Q1 session but there was disappointment in the session for Jay Finlinson, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme, Guillaume Hemain, Juan Cruz Lezcano, Mario Lamy, Jean Baptiste Baldassari and Tory Snyder who failed to make Q2. Neither Khalid Al-Maazmi nor Robin Laforge took the start of Q1 and both Baldassari and Lezcano were penalised for dangerous driving.
Pierre-François Savelli posted the early target time of 1min 34.288sec but the Frenchman’s lead was short-lived when the defending World Champion Samuel Johansson ran quicker with a 1min 31.176sec. Jéremy Perez then slotted into second but all three were demoted in the standings by a flying György Kasza and Medori, with the Hungarian running a flier of 1min 28.033sec to grab provisional pole from Medori.
Kasza improved still further with a lap of 1min 27.517sec but that run was cancelled for course cutting. He still managed to claim pole, however, from Johansson, Medori, Perez and Savelli. Birthday boy Linus Lindberg, Andrzej Wisniewski, Egidijus Kirilevicius and Rasmus Koch Hansen qualified in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth places, but Martin Doulík failed to start Q2 and was down in 10th.
Kasza said: “It was a nice feeling to take pole. It has been a long time since I took pole in the World Championship. I am happy. Good weather and no rain, so I look forward to the afternoon.”
Only 15 of the 19 riders had taken to the water for the free practice session, where Perez got the better of his rivals with a lap of 1min 37.853sec. Kasza, Rasmus Koch Hansen and Medori were second, third and fourth quickest in free practice.
Freestyle pole for Team Abu Dhabi’s Al-Mulla
Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla began the defence of his Freestyle world title in impressive style by claiming pole for the first of the Freestyle Motos. The Emirati delivered his usual customary array of back flips, somersaults, fountains and spins to impress the judges with a 201-point score.
His great rival and defending European Champion Roberto Mariani pushed him hard and qualified in second with 198 points ahead of fellow Italian Massimo Accumolo (161pts). Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes was a non-starter.
The first of the Motos get underway from 15.15hrs (local time) this afternoon.