Friday, 2 June, PORTO CESAREO (Italy): Ski GP1 rider Raphael Maurin produced a stunning final session to seal pole position for Moto 1 of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Grand Prix of Italy by just five-one- hundredths-of-a-second.

The French rider is enjoying a rich vein of form, winning last time out in Zadar, and stunned his UIM-ABP world tour rivals, improving from third quickest in Q1 to snatch the pole with a best lap of 1:52.78 seconds.

Norway’s Stian Schjetlein improved by over eight seconds in the second session with a time of  1:52.83s to go second quickest ahead of defending world champion Jeremy Poret.

Despite carrying a back injury, Mickael Poret managed to bring his new Kawasaki home in fourth ahead of another Kawasaki convert Quinten Bossche in a final session that saw the top five separated by just eight-tenths of a second, with Italy’s Alberto Monti claiming a top six slot.

For full classifications: www.aquabike.net/results