Saturday, 3 October, LIUZHOU (China): French riders Jennifer Menard and Jeremy Poret grabbed the upper-hand for heat 1 of the Grand Prix of China in Ski, with Jean-Baptiste Botti starting from pole position in Runabout.

Menard was the pick of the nine ladies out for their 15 minute session but was pushed all the way by championship rival and current point’s leader Emma-Nellie Ortendahl from Sweden, the French rider and heat 1 winner in Qatar laying down her marker and the all-important fastest time, 1:40.25s, on her first of 7 flying laps.

Ortendahl, who won last time out in Italy and quickest in both this morning’s practice sessions, was also fast out of the blocks in qualifying posting her best time on her first run but came up 0.19s short of the woman whose crown she is trying to steal.  Third fastest was Portugal’s Beatriz Curtinhal with just over two seconds to find if she is to challenge the two front runners.

Ski GP1 is arguably the most closely contested of the categories; the top four in the standings have all won heats this year, Nacho Armillas and Kevin Reiterer claiming overall victories in Qatar and Italy, but in qualifying it was championship leader Jeremy Poret who came out on top.

There were few surprises in the opening 15 minute-session, Alex Barret the biggest casualty and failing to progress to join the top ten in Q2.

As expected Poret and Reiterer traded times and places, each holding the advantage and provisional pole, before Poret laid down a blistering 1.35.46s lap to claim pole position by 2.04s from his Austrian challenger, Spain’s Armillas having to settle for third and squeezed out by .02s.

Mickael Poret, heat winner in Italy and the newly crowned European Champion, posted the fourth fastest time with Stian Schetlien and Alberto Monti rounding out the top six.

The big incentive to try and grab an early advantage in Runabout is the absence of championship leader Khalifa Belselah and it was double heat winner Jean-Baptiser Botti who did just that.

The rider from Corsica topped the time sheets in both sessions, but laid down the gauntlet emphatically in Q2 destroying the field with a 1:26.00s lap to leave former champion Youssef Al Abdulrazzaq 3.87s off the pace and European Champion Jeremy Perez six seconds adrift.

Sweden’s Lars Akerblom won here last year looks to be coming back into form going fourth quickest in 1:32.36s ahead of Qatar winner Thamer Al Darwish and Teddy Pons.

There was disappointment for Cyrille Lemoine on his return to the tour after being out through injury, failing to make the session after breaking his engine in practice.

In Freestyle the Florjancic brothers continue their inter-family rivalry both scoring 93 out of 100, Roberto Mariani awarded 72.

Heats 1 of the Grand Prix of China begin at 10.00hrs [local] tomorrow with heats 2 taking place in the afternoon.