Friday, June 21: A hectic afternoon session at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy saw competitors in the Ski GP3 and GP4, Runabout GP4 and GP4 Ladies, Ski GP2 and Runabout GP2 categories carry out their joint free practice and pole position qualifying sessions in Olbia.
Pole positions in the respective classes fell to Hungarian Csongor Jászai, Frenchman Baptiste Calmels, the Italian duo of Davide Pontecorvo and Arianna Urlo and Estonia’s Mattias Reinass and Mattias Siimann.
Ski GP3 pole for Csongor Jászai
A dozen Ski GP3 entrants were first on to the water for 10 laps of free practice that followed two following a marshal and then a further 10 minutes for qualifying. Belgian Yoni Hamelin pipped Csongor Jászai and fellow countryman Loris Lambert
to the quickest lap in free practice and then attention turned to qualifying.
Jászai laid down the gauntlet with an opening run of 1min 57.136sec and then Croatia’s Dorijan Jakopanec slotted into second with Jászai’s fellow Magyar Lajos Komonyi holding third. Jászai then ran even quicker third lap of 1min 53.618sec and that was enough to win the session and claim pole position. Hamelin, Jakopanec, Lambert, Komonyi and Antoine Goethals of Belgium rounded off the top six.
Baptiste Calmels storms to Ski GP4 pole
Nine entrants, including female racers Carolina Vernata, Valentine Coutier and the esteemed Jennifer Ménard-Poret, were registered for Ski GP4.
Estonian Mattias Reinass headed French rider Baptiste Calmels and fellow countryman Ander-Hubert Lauri in free practice but it was Calmels who set the early target lap of 1min 52.652sec in qualifying. Reinass and Lauri settled into second and third with five minutes of the session remaining and Ménard-Poret moved into fourth.
Lauri then climbed to second with a run of 1min 53.352sec and Calmels increased his cushion with a storming second lap of 1min 50.484sec. That proved to be a bridge too far for his rivals and the 21-year-old Frenchman eventually claimed pole position from Belgian Yoni Hamelin, Reinass, Lauri, Ménard-Poret and Markus Erlach of Hungary.
Davide Pontecorvo earns Runabout GP4 pole on home waters
Sixteen riders from nine nations were registered for Runabout GP4. Estonian Arti Molter set a late quickest lap in the short practice session that preceded qualifying with fellow countrymen Henri Koppas, Marek Laanisto and Karl Keskula also running strongly in an Estonian 1-2-3-4.
But it was Italy’s Davide Pontecorvo who set the early target lap of 1min 54.953sec in qualifying. Ibiza-based Spaniard Alejandro Prats-Palau slotted into second with six minutes remaining on the clock and Juliusz Roman was third. Molter then climbed into third at the expense of the Pole and Koppas and Laanisto slotted into fifth and sixth.
There were no changes within the top six heading into the final two minutes of the session and Pontecorvo’s opening salvo was sufficient to win the session and claim pole position from Prats-Palau by 2.785 seconds. Molter, Roman, Koppas and Laanisto rounded off the top six qualifiers.
Arianna Urlo’s opening flier wins Runabout GP4 Ladies pole
Thirteen girls from seven nations lined up for the Runabout GP4 Ladies’ practice and qualifying stints. Last year’s series runner-up Arianna Urlo of Italy claimed an early confidence boost by topping the times from Spaniard Ashira Zamora and Estonian Carmen Roosmaa in free practice.
Estonia’s Annemarie Randla laid down a target time of 2min 02.911sec at the start of qualifying but Urlo broke the two-minute barrier with a time of 1min 58.988sec to snatch the advantage and French girl Cyrielle Bramm slotted briefly into second. Czech star and defending world champion Nikola Dryjakova had been subdued in free practice but she opened her account with a 2min 00.495sec run to move into second behind Urlo. Carmen Roosmaa, Nicole Cadei and Clara Muchembled held fourth, fifth and sixth with less than five minutes to run.
Ester Rosin of Estonia then posted a lap of 1min 59.804sec to displace Dryjakova and move into second behind Urlo and Randla also moved ahead of the Czech to snatch third. The musical chairs continued into the closing minutes with Bramm (1min 59.154sec) regaining second place from Rosin, Randla, Dryjakova, Michelle Dimov and Roosmaa.
Urlo’s opening flier proved too much for her rivals and the Italian duly claimed pole from Bramm, Rosin, Cadei, Randla, Dryjakova and Dimov. Roosmaa, Muchembled and Marketa Hollerova rounded off the top 10.
Impressive Ski GP2 pole for Estonia’s Mattias Reinass
Nine hopefuls from six countries lined up for Ski Division GP2 free practice and qualifying. Italian Andrea Guidi then topped the times in free practice from Marlon Tiik and Mattias Reinass of Estonia.
Attention soon switched to 10 minutes of qualifying and Csongor Jászai followed up his Ski GP3 pole success with a flying opener of 1min 46.935sec to snatch the early lead. That advantage was short lived, however, and Reinaas snatched the advantage with an impressive tour of 1min 43.854sec. Finland’s Jerry Olin slotted into third, ahead of Guidi and Matteo Valente.
Tiik then moved up to second behind his fellow countryman and pushed Jászai down to third with four minutes on the clock. No-one was able to match Reinass’s early flier though and the Estonian ran even faster (1min 42.345sec) on his fourth lap to win the session by 4.569sec from Tiik with Jászai, Olin, Guidi and Valente rounding out the top six.
Estonian’s Mattias Siimann earns pole in Runabout GP2
Free practice and an extended 15-minute qualifying session rounded off the stint for the secondary categories for 21 Runabout GP2 entrants from 12 nations. Spaniard Ruben Riquelme claimed the early bragging rights by setting the fastest time in free practice from Estonia’s Mattias Siimann and Italian Alessandro Fracasso.
In the absence of defending world champion Manuel Reggiani, the door was open for a new name to top the rankings and Pierpaolo Terreo of Italy helped his cause no end by posting an opening qualifying lap of 1min 50.948sec. That was soon hijacked by Petr Dryjak’s opener of 1min 50.375sec, as Fracasso, Jimenez and Pierre-François Savelli.
As the session progressed, Siimann hit the front with a 1min 48.780sec run and Gaetano Costagliola (1min 48.967sec) slotted into second ahead of Dryjak, Terreo and Tom Claerhout of Belgium with Fracasso dropping back to sixth. It was difficult to get a clean run on the busy circuit and Siimann’s time held firm to the end of the session with Costagliola finishing second ahead of Dryjak, a resurgent Fracasso, Terreo and Claerhout.