Friday, July 26: Frenchman François Medori, Serbia’s Slobodan Sobic and Pierre-Marie Vincentelli snatched the laurels in the second of the GP1, GP2 and GP3 UIM-ABP European Endurance Motos at the Grand Prix of Vichy on Friday afternoon.

Medori said: “The race was great. I made a good start today. I was behind Lino (Araújo) but, unfortunately, he had a problem on his ski and I passed him and finished the race in first position. There are three more Motos. It is not finished. We need to stay focused to try and win the weekend. I will try and do the same thing tomorrow and Sunday.”

Portugal’s Lino Araújo had won Moto 1 in GP1 and lined up on pole position from Medori (the World Runabout GP1 champion), Spaniard Ruben Jimenez Riquelme and Sweden’s Johan Johansson. Sobic headed Michele Cadei in GP2 and France’s Vincentelli was out on his own in GP3. GP2 contenders Sammy Maysonnave and Tom Claerhout and GP1 entrant Anthony Granger were non-starters. Claerhout had been disqualified after Moto 1 because his ski did not conform with the regulations.

Araújo made another strong getaway to hold the early lead from Medori, Johansson and Vincent Thomas and Alex Barret of France and the Portuguese began lap two with a 4.84-second advantage. He managed to increase that through the next tour of the Allier River course as Riquelme moved up to fourth in GP1 and Sobic continued to pull away from Cadei in GP2.

Thomas passed a troubled Johansson to snatch third and Medori closed the gap on the leader to just 3.32 seconds into lap six. Italy’s Ezio Lucchese dropped out after just one lap.

As Johansson tumbled out of contention for the top five, Araújo and Medori pulled further away from third-placed Thomas, with Cadei running in fourth in GP1 (also registered for GP2) ahead of Barret, Riquelme and Italy’s Mirko Spoto. Barret found a way to pass Cadei and the Frenchman climbed to fourth but Araújo was still keeping a small gap between himself and the pursuing Medori at the head of the Moto.

But Araújo was unable to fend off Medori’s persistent challenge on this occasion and the Frenchman passed the struggling Portuguese after 13 laps and cruised to the finish to claim the maximum 25-point haul. Araújo had suffered technical issues with his Sea-Doo and was not able to continue: his demise lifted Barret and Thomas into the two remaining podium places, while Sobic and Vincentelli earned GP2 and GP3 spoils.

The comfortable two-lap victory gives Medori an unofficial nine-point lead over Barret in the overall GP1 standings. Barret said: “I am happy with this podium. There is a great atmosphere here.”