Saturday, June 22: Estonian Henri Koppas, French girl Cyrielle Bramm, Estonia’s Mattias Reinass and Mattias Siimann and Belgian Yoni Hamelin claimed opening Moto victories in the Runabout GP4, Runabout GP4 Ladies, Ski GP2, Runabout GP2 and Ski GP3/GP4 categories at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy in Olbia.
Saturday morning’s action took place in slightly windier conditions than Friday’s with bumper fields of riders from 31 countries entertaining the Sardinian crowds lining the side of the race course.
Henri Koppas claims opening Runabout GP4 Moto win
Sixteen riders lined up on the pontoon for the opening Runabout GP4 Moto and Davide Pontecorvo headed Ibiza-based Spanish defending world champion Alejandro Prats-Palau from the start in windier conditions than competitors had experienced on Friday. After a couple of riders jumped the gun and headed out during a light test, action got underway at the second attempt and Prats-Palau made the perfect start and moved ahead of Henri Koppas and Pontecorvo through lap one. Arti Molter and Karl Keskula held fourth and fifth.
The leading quintet held their positions through lap two, although Koppas continued to apply the pressure on the leader through the next few laps, as pole-sitter Pontecorvo plummeted down the rankings and his demise lifted Molter, Keskula and Petr Dryjak into third, fourth and fifth with Marek Laanisto in sixth.
Prats-Palau was overtaken by Koppas with a couple of minutes on the clock and the Estonian held on to claim 25 points and the opening Moto win by 3.780 seconds from Keskula - who overtook Prats-Palau late on - with Dryjak, Molter and Laanisto rounding off the top six after nine laps. The result marked an Estonian 1-2-5-6 finish.
Cyrielle Bramm earns opening Runabout GP4 Ladies Moto win
Thirteen girls graced the start list for the opening Runabout GP4 Ladies and Rome-based Italian racer Arianna Urlo had pole from French rival Cyrielle Bramm with defending World Champion Nikola Dryjakova down in sixth.
Bramm made the best start and moved ahead of Nicole Cadei, Annemarie Randla, Urlo and Carmen Roosmaa through the opening couple of laps. Ashira Zamora didn’t take the start. Roosmaa dropped back to 10th through lap three and Michelle Dimov and Dryjakova climbed into fifth and sixth behind Bramm, Cadei, Randla and Urlo.
The leaders held their positions through seven laps and Bramm maintained her composure to snatch the Moto win by just 2.146 seconds from Cadei. Randla, Urlo, Dimov, Dryjakova and Ester Rosin wrapped up the top seven places after nine laps.
Ski GP2 success for Mattias Reinass
The Estonian duo of pole-sitter Mattias Reinass and Marlon Tiik headed seven rivals into the first of the 15-minute Ski Division GP2 Motos. But talented Hungarian Csongor Jászai stole a march on his rivals and snatched the early lead from Reinass, Andrea Guidi, Matteo Valente, Jerry Olin and Tikk.
Reinass continued to apply the pressure on the Hungarian and the duo were neck-and-neck for several minutes as they pulled away from the rest of the field. Just 0.456 seconds separated the leaders through lap four but Jászai was able to stay head of the Estonian until the pole-sitter managed to pass on lap five and snatch the lead. Tiik overtook Olin and moved up to fifth.
Reinass was able to pull clear of the Hungarian as the race entered its closing stages and he reached the chequered flag to confirm a comfortable 13.327sec win from Jászai with Guidi, a resurgent Tiik, Valente and Lisa Caussin Battaglia rounding off the top six after Olin hit trouble late on and slipped back to eighth behind Andreas Reiter.
Mattias Siimann earns Moto 1 win in Runabout GP2
Twenty racers lined up for the opening Runabout GP2 Moto and Estonia’s Mattias Siimann had pole position from Italian Gaetano Costagliola. Lithuanian Egidijus Kirilevicius was a non-starter.
Siimann maintained his advantage through the opening turn buoys and finished the first lap 5.302 seconds clear of Pierpaolo Terreo with Petr Dryjak, Alessandro Fracasso, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme and Costagliola holding top six positions. Siimann was able to keep Terreo at bay through the next couple of laps as the leading group held station into lap five. The Estonian then began to pull away from Terreo and increased his lead to 11.655 seconds with 10 minutes of the race to run. Pierre Savelli was involved in a collision on lap six but was swiftly able to continue.
The high-speed procession continued into the closing minutes and Siimann sealed victory by an impressive margin of 20.370 seconds from Terreo. Fracasso, Dryjak, Riquelme and Igor Tycel rounded off the top six after Costagliola slipped down the running and finished eighth behind Alexis Mihalcea. Tycel was later penalised and Mihalcea and Costagliola moved up to sixth and seventh.
Moto 1 Ski GP3 victory for Belgium’s Yoni Hamelin
The opening 15-minute Ski GP3 Moto took place late on Friday afternoon with Csongor Jászai lining up on pole from Belgian Yoni Hamelin, Croatia’s Dorijan Jakopanec, Loris Lambert and Antoine Goethals.
Hamelin made the better start and moved in front of Jakopanec and Jászai through lap one with Goethals and Lambert running in fourth and fifth. The quintet held station through lap three and began to pull away from sixth-placed Frederik Frandsen. Goethals found a way to pass Jászai and snatched third place with just over five minutes on the clock.
But the Hungarian pole-sitter was not to be denied and he regained third place only to be repassed by the Belgian before the finish. Goethals duly finished the Moto on the bottom step of the podium behind a triumphant Hamelin and Jakopanec. The Belgian’s winning margin was 3.474 seconds. Jászai plummeted down the field to 10th with technical issues on the last lap and was also overtaken by Lambert, Frandsen, Martin Tiik, Michael van Reybroek, Lajos Komonyi and Pierre Defays.
Yoni Hamelin adds Ski GP4 Moto success to opening Ski GP3 win
Baptiste Calmels lined up on pole for Moto 1 late on Friday afternoon. The Frenchman led the nine-boat field into the 15-minute Moto from Yoni Hamelin, Mattias Reinass, Ander-Hubert Lauri and Jennifer Ménard-Poret.
Hamelin joined the starting line-up fresh from winning the opening Ski GP3 Moto and the Belgian maintained his strong form to forge into a slender lead over Lauri, Calmels and Ménard-Poret after the opening lap. He extended his advantage to 4.552 seconds through lap two but the leaders held station from then on with Mattias Reinass and Markus Erlach holding fifth and sixth positions.
Reinass then found a way to pass Ménard-Poret and snatched fourth heading into the remaining&