Friday, July 19: The city of Győr hosted free practice and qualifying sessions in nine racing classes for the Grand Prix of Hungary, the opening round of the 2024 UIM-ABP European Continental Aquabike Championship, on Friday morning.
Competitors in the Ski GP3, Runabout GP4, Ski GP4, Runabout GP4 Ladies, Ski Juniors GP3.2, GP3.3 and Runabout GP4 Junior World Championships took to the water, in addition to aquabikers entered in the Runabout Veterans GP1 category and the Freestyle section.
Thirteen Ski GP3 entrants carried out their free practice and qualifying sessions at the start of the hectic morning’s action and rising Belgian star Belgian Yoni Hamelin followed up his superb performances in Sardinia with pole position. He beat Dorian Jakopanec by 0.68 seconds with local rider Barnabas Szabo finishing third, fellow Belgian Loris Lambert claiming fourth in the starting line-up for Moto 1 and Csaba Süli of Hungary rounding off the top five.
Fourteen Runabout GP4 Sea-Doo riders were next on to the course off Zámoly Beach at an old quarry lake in Győrzámoly. Estonian Henri Koppas carded the fastest lap in the qualifying session to claim pole position from Czech rival Petr Dryjak and Mateusz Hepner of Poland. Michele Cadei and Jurica Marovic were fourth and fifth.
Hamelin continued his good form to beat five rivals to pole position in the Ski GP4 category with a best lap of 1min 24.74sec. Young Ander Hubert Lauri of Estonia and Latvia’s Daniils Potrivailo were second and third and Jennifer Poret, Christina Mahringer and Grantas Gurksnys rounded off the qualifiers.
Eleven girls entered their Runabout GP4 practice and qualifying sessions and the talented French girl Cyrielle Bramm left it late in the session to card the best lap of 1min 26.65sec to snatch pole by 0.16 seconds from Nicole Cadei. Czech Nikola Dryjakova and the Italian duo of Ilaria Vanni and Arianna Urlo rounded off the top five.
Marvin Bohuslav of Hungary and Croatian Leo Kete are targeting Ski Juniors GP3.2 World Championship honours this weekend and lined up in the practice and pole position sessions with the likes of Ander Hubert Lauri, Croatia’s Dorijan Jakopanec, Swede Pelle Stenborg and Hungarian Lajos Komonyi, who are chasing GP3.3 honours.
Pole in Ski Junior 3.2 fell to Bohuslav from Kete, while Jakopanec pipped Komonyi, Lauri, Maxime Arthebise and Mio Petrovic to the prime starting position in Ski Junior 3.3.
Ten riders took to the water for practice and qualifying in Runabout GP4 Juniors for their World Championship challenge. Lithuanian, Estonian and Italian riders dominated the entry and Grantas Gurksnys emerged from the pack to snatch pole position with a best lap of 1min 25.31sec. Fellow Lithuanian Erikas Butkus qualified second and Via Petrovic was third with Dovydas Kutra and Rihard Leinsalu of Estonia completing the top five.
The last of the morning’s high-speed action revolved around four Hungarian and one Lithuanian racer entered in the Runabout Veterans GP1 section. Pole position comfortably went to the talented György Kasza with a lap of 1min 05.14sec. Zsolt Cseke, Mindaugas Jaciauskas, Krisztian Panyi-Horvath and Sándor Major completed the top five.
Five aquabike artists are registered for Freestyle action this weekend and they carried out their free practice and pole position sessions at the end of the morning’s stint. Current World Champion Roberto Mariani is chasing European glory along with fellow countryman Massimo Accumolo, Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes and the Hungarian duo of Wolfgang Strasser and Maximilian Martha.
After further qualifying and the first of the Motos on Friday afternoon, the opening ceremony will take place in downtown Győr this evening before a spectacular night of Freestyle action gets underway on the Danube-Rába confluence in the historic downtown of Hungary’s sixth largest city in front of the Kossuth Bridge with free practice preceding Moto1.
Szabolcs Szeles, Deputy Mayor of Győr, Nikoletta Pulai, Major of Győrzámoly, and Béla Czeller, President of the Hungarian Jet Sports Federation, will be in attendance at the opening ceremony.