Friday, June 16:  Riders competing in the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 categories carried out their first free practice sessions of the new season on Friday morning.

The opening round of the 2023 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship in Olbia has attracted a record field across all the race classes. Jasmiin Ypraus topped the times in the Ski Ladies GP1 section with a best lap of 1min 44.84sec and that put the Estonian an impressive 2.3 seconds ahead of French rival Jessica Chavanne. Norwegian Benedicte Drange was third. 

Twenty-four racers lined up for free practice in Ski Division GP1 and Mickael and Morgan Poret were the class of the field, the French duo separated by just 0.15 seconds but comfortably quicker than third-placed Anders Keller. 

First blood in the new Runabout GP1 season went to the defending World Champion Marcus Jorgensen. The Dane finished the session with a lap that was 0.474 seconds quicker than the quickest set by French veteran François Medori. 

Spain’s Alejandro Molina Miranda was third of the 19 runners who carded lap times. Former champion Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq retired, Emanuele Masala was disqualified and Juan Cruz Lezcano, Robert Wallenborn and Mario Lamy were non-starters.