Saturday, November 25: Jasmiin Ypraus, Kevin Reiterer and Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq claimed pole positions in the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 categories for Saturday afternoon’s opening Moto of the Grand Prix of Lake Toba-Indonesia in Balige, northern Sumatra.
The pole positions sessions also included qualifying for the evening’s stand-alone Parallel Slalom World Championship being held in conjunction with the final round of the 2023 UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro Circuit World Championship.
Estonian racer Jasmiin Ypraus holds third position in the Ski Ladies GP1 World Championship and she claimed the top time in the pole position session on Lake Toba with a best lap of 1min 43.366sec to finish nearly two seconds clear of championship leader Jessica Chavanne.
All 10 girls took to the water in a session where Sweden’s Sofie Borgström registered six laps and finished third, with free practice session winner Benedicte Drange of Norway and Virginie Moraes rounding off the top five. Moraes edged out Ypraus for the top time in the Parallel Slalom pole position with Chavanne and Borgström completing the top four.
Austrian racer Kevin Reiterer set the fastest lap of 1min 41.139sec to win the Q1 session for the 14 Ski Division GP1 entrants, the veteran finishing the stint 0.128 seconds in front of the championship-leading Oliver Koch Hansen after registering four laps. Belgium’s Anthony Beernaut, Mickael Poret of France and Axel Courtois rounded off the top five.
Reiterer topped the times again in Q2 to claim pole position with a run of 1min 36.917sec in a session where Beernaut, Courtois and Mickael Poret were his closest challengers.
Courtois got the better of his rivals in qualification for the Parallel Slalom, however, and a run of 36.270 seconds gave the Frenchman the advantage over Oliver Koch Hansen, Reiterer and Swiss racer Alec Enderli.
François Medori was in terrific form at the start of the opening Q1 session for the Runabout GP1 event. The World Championship leader exploded out of the blocks with a lap of 1min 33.076sec in a stint where Rashed Al-Dawas, Rashed Al-Tayer and Samuel Johansson failed to start. That opening lap was enough for the Frenchman to win the session from Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq, Jeremy Perez, Johan Johansson and Gyorgy Kasza.
The field was whittled down from 17 to 10 boats for Q2. Al-Abdulrazzaq stormed to the top of the standings with a first run of 1min 29.182sec and that put the Kuwaiti 0.155 seconds ahead of Jeremy Perez with Medori down in third heading into the final five minutes of the stint. That time proved to be unbeatable and Al-Abdulrazzaq claimed pole from Perez and Medori. Alejandro Molina Miranda and Johan Johansson qualified in fourth and fifth.
Al-Abdulrazzaq may have missed out on the final day of the Samosir Cup on Friday but he had used the time to prepare well for the qualifying sessions. The Kuwaiti also topped the Parallel Slalom qualifying runs with a time of 32.073 seconds. Medori, Molina Miranda and Jeremy Perez filled the other places inside the top four.
The four Freestyle entrants also took to the water at the end of the stint to entertain the impressive crowds lining the side of the lake. Roberto Mariani and Rashid Al-Mulla jointly lead the World Championship on 47 points apiece heading into this weekend’s Indonesian showdown. Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes and Moroccan Yassine Fadli are also in attendance.
Lake Toba is part of the Toba Caldera UNESCO Global Geopark and is one of five UNESCO global geoparks in Indonesia. It is one of Indonesia’s Super Priority Tourism Destinations (DPSP).
The opening Motos for the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 entrants take centre start on the Balige circuit from 15.15hrs on Saturday afternoon with a further free practice session following for Freestyle entrants ahead of the evening’s Parallel Slalom and Freestyle Moto 1.