Saturday, 10 June, VIESTE (Italy): Championship newcomer Quinten Bossche produced a brilliant performance to take victory in the first Moto in Ski GP1 at the UIM-ABP Aquabike Grand Prix of the Mediterranean.

 

Defending champion Jeremy Poret had to settle with following the young Belgian to the chequered flag for the second time in two outings, with Mickael Poret taking third.

 

Despite starting from pole Bossche dropped places immediately and trailed Jeremy Poret and Mickael Poret off the start.

 

Behind the leader a titanic battle developed with Bossche closing down and attacking Mickael Poret, eventually making the successful pass on lap five.

 

Two laps later he moved in on and passed race leader Jeremy Poret and then going onto to take his second win of the year by 5.54s and impressively move to the top of the championship points standings, just three Motos into his rookie season. “It wasn’t a great start, I think I was about fifth or sixth initially but came out of the double split in third. From that point I waited and planned when I was going to attack. I moved in to second and then it took me two or three goes to get to the front.”

 

Morgan Poret ran all but the final metres of the race in fourth place and looked to be on course to make it a Poret two-three-four, but dramatically came off his Ski passing a group of backmarkers just before the finish line, eventually clambering back on board and finishing in eighth.

 

Raphael Maurin made up ground from sixth place passing Stian Schjetlein on lap 4 and then passing a floundering Poret to finish in fourth. Fifteen-year-old Marten Manni produced another impressive outing moving up from ninth to take fifth place ahead of Markus Lutsokert.

 

It was a disappointing afternoon for two of the championship’s big names; Schjetlein struggling with his set-up and coming off his Ski after colliding with another rider but salvaging seventh spot, whilst Kevin Reiterer was forced to jump off his preferred SDC before the start and jump on to Jonna Borgstrom’s Kawasaki. The switch forced the 2015 champion to start from the outside line of 29, and despite carving his way through the pack of riders ahead of him could only manage to finish in 12th.

 

[For further information and to watch all the action from Moto 2 on Sunday streamed live; visit aquabike.net]