Monday, 21 September: The 2015 title race in Runabout GP1 is turning into a titanic battle for supremacy between the Middle East and France, the riders from the Middle East staking their championship credentials after claiming overall victories in Qatar and in Italy.

Castro GP winner and the points’ leader Khalifa Belselah from the UAE heads a Middle East lockout of the top three slots, with Qatar’s Thamer Al Darwish, the winner in Doha, five points adrift in second ahead of 2013 world champion, Kuwaiti Youssef Al Abdulrazzaq.

Chasing them is a quintet of French stars; newly crowned european champion and world ranked number 1 Jeremy Perez leads the pack from Corsican duo Jean-Baptiste Botti and Francois Medori then Didier Chabert and defending World Champion Teddy Pons.

Belselah, Al Darwish and Botti have all grabbed heat wins, but it was Belselah’s protest and Botti’s subsequent disqualification from first place in heat 1 in Castro that ignited the Runabout title race, a clearly unhappy Botti taking sweet revenge and goading his rival on route to an emphatic win in heat 2.

So whilst the Middle East trio hold the upper hand with the French in pursuit, the man they all have to fear and beat is Botti, clearly the quickest out there.

But for a mechanical problem in heat 2 in Qatar the double win and GP title would most probably have been his and but for the DQ, overall victory in Italy was a given.

The much anticipated match-up between Belselah and Botti comes when the riders line up for round 3 and the Grand Prix of China at the Jinglan Watersports Center in Liuzhou on 3-4 October.