Thursday, 5 March, DOHA (Qatar): French riders Jeremy Poret and Jennifer Menard were the pick of the bunch in Ski, both topping the time sheets in qualifying, with Kuwaiti Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq going quickest in Runabout.

Defending World Champion Jeremy Poret will lead the front line of five of 16 riders in heat 1 in Ski after taking his fourth pole position in Doha.

The Frenchman sat back in Q1 and settled for fourth fastest behind Kevin Reiterer, Nacho Armillas and younger brother Morgan, but made sure of pole in Q2 posting his best time, 1:40.89, on his first flying lap.

The twenty-one-year-old Spaniard Armillas pushed hard and was within a second of the pole sitter with a 1:41.43, Austria’s Kevin Reiterer going third quickest on his tour debut.

The big loser of the morning session was Mickael Poret, technical problems halting his progress in Q1 and failing to go through to Q2.  

Jennifer Menard was the class act of eight riders in the Ladies division topping the time sheets in both sessions and taking pole position with 1:50.16, four seconds quicker than French rival Estelle Poret.

New Zealander Kylie Ellmers went third quickest in 1: 55.28 ahead of Swedish youngster Emma-Nellie Ortendhal and Spain’s Sandra Fernandez, who was towed off the circuit in Q2 after running out of fuel.

In Runabout the form book was turned inside out with Middle East riders winning the qualifying sessions over their European rivals, with several fancied riders, Medori, Lemoine, Wisniewski and Akerblom all failing to make it out of Q1.

Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq led a Kuwaiti one-two, his best 1:38.56, edging out Mohamad Al Burbayae, who went quickest in Q1, by less than two-tenths of a second, with Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Botti third quickest with 1:39.05.