Saturday, June 22: Moto 2 victories in the Ski GP3, Ski GP4, Runabout GP4, Runabout GP4 Ladies, Ski GP2 and Runabout GP2 categories fell to Belgian Yoni Hamelin and Estonian racers Ander-Hubert Lauri, Karl Keskula, Annemarie Randla, Mattias Reinass and Mattias Siimann after several hours of pulsating action at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy on Saturday afternoon.

The results meant that talented young Estonian racers won five of the afternoon’s six Motos.

Belgium’s Yoni Hamelin wins his second Ski GP3 Moto

Success in the opening Ski GP3 Moto gave Belgian racer Yoni Hamelin pole for Moto 2 and a three-point lead over Croatia’s Dorijan Jakopanec in the points’ standings. Fellow Belgians, Antoine Goethals and Loris Lambert, lined up in third and fourth for the second 15-minute Moto with Csongor Jászai not among the 11 starters.

Lambert made a good run to the hole shot and snatched the early lead from Jakopanec, Hamelin, Goethals, Frederik Frandsen and Martin Tiik. Jakopanec then fell on the course, slipped to third and gifted second place to Hamelin as Lambert led by just 0.803 seconds into lap three. The Croatian’s troubles weren’t over, however, and he plummeted down to ninth and out of contention, his demise lifting Tiik, Frandsen, Goethals and Michael van Reybroek into third, fourth, fifth and sixth.

With five Belgian riders running inside the top five, Lambert entering the final four minutes leading Hamelin by 0.869 seconds, as Jakopanec regained seventh at the expense of Pierre Defays and Lajos Komonyi.

Goethals climbed to fourth but Hamelin passed Lambert with less than a minute to run to claim the Moto win by 3.540 seconds after ferocious late pressure eventually paid off. Tiik, Goethals, van Reybroek and Jacopanec rounded off the top six after Frandsen slipped back to seventh. The result means that Hamelin heads to the final Moto with a 10-point advantage over Lambert.

Estonian Ander-Hubert Lauri takes Ski GP4 Moto 2 win

Victory in the first Ski GP4 Moto enabled Yoni Hamelin to benefit from a favourable start position for Moto 2, although he took the start just minutes after winning his second Ski GP3 Moto. Estonian rival Ander-Hubert Lauri and Frenchman Baptiste Calmels were second and third on the start pontoon among nine starters. Carolina Vernata made a good start but Lauri snatched the advantage from Mattias Reinass, Hamelin, Calmels and Jennifer Ménard-Poret.

Fatigue was not an issue for Hamelin and he managed to pass Reinass to snatch second place, while Markus Erlach overhauled Ménard-Poret to take fifth. Reinass regained second from Hamelin with seven minutes of the race to run, although Lauri was in control of the race and extended his lead to 4.597 seconds after four laps.

The 15-year-old Tallinn-based student made a small mistake but kept his cool over the final laps to secure the Moto win by 1.828 seconds, 25 points and an outright two-point lead over Hamelin in the World Championship with one Moto to run on Sunday. Fellow countryman Reinass finished second, Hamelin was third and Calmels, Erlach and Ménard-Poret were classified in fourth, fifth and sixth in a strengthening wind.

Runabout GP4 Moto 2 win for Estonia’s Karl Keskula

The Estonian duo of Henri Koppas and Karl Keskula had earned first and second in the morning’s opening Moto and lined up ahead of Ibiza-based Spanish defending world champion Alejandro Prats-Palau, Petr Dryjak and Arti Molter for the start of the second

Runabout GP4 race.

Sixteen aquabikes lined up on the start pontoon and Keskula headed Molter and Koppas in an Estonian 1-2-3- from lights out and to the finish of lap one. Koppas then had to pull in for a stop-go penalty after a jump start and he slipped back to 12th with Dryjak climbing to third ahead of Prats-Palau, Davide Pontecorvo. Maddox Reichardt, Marek Laanisto and Davide Santini.

Pontecorvo overtook Prats-Palau to snatch fourth place as Keskula continued to lead from Molter into the remaining six minutes and Koppas regained one position to hold 11th. Keskula held off rivals to earn the win by 2.640 seconds and take a useful 10-point World Championship lead into the final Moto. Pontecorvo overtook Molter on the final lap to grab second and Dryjak, Prats-Palau and Reichardt filled the remaining places in the top six. Koppas finished 10th but Ahmed Al-Hermi and Antonio Pontecorvo retired early in the race.

Annemarie Randla triumphs in second Runabout GP4 Ladies Moto

French racer Cyrielle Bramm had won Moto 1 from Nicole Cadei, Annemarie Randla and Arianna Urlo and lined up in a 12-girl field for the second of the Runabout GP4 Ladies Motos. Ashira Zamora was again a non-starter.

Urlo made a storming start and pulled clear of Michelle Dimov, Randla, Bramm, Cadei, Ester Rosin, current World Champion Nikola Dryjakova and Carmen Roosmaa. The Rome-based rider increased her advantage to 7.260sec over Dimov through two laps but there were no changes on the leaderboard until Randla managed to displace Dimov and move into second place.

Cadei then passed Bramm to grab fourth but there was no stopping Urlo and the Italian passed the chequered flag with a winning margin of 6.105 seconds. Randla and Cadei rounded off the podium places with Bramm and Dimov finishing fourth and fifth ahead of Rosin, Dryjakova and Roosmaa.

Urlo was deemed to have taken the wrong lane at the finish, however, and was docked a lap which handed the victory to Randla from Cadei, Bramm, Dimov, Rosin and Roosmaa. The result means that Bramm and Randla are tied for the lead on 45 points and take a one-point cushion over Cadei into the final Moto on Sunday.

Ski GP2 Moto double for Mattias Reinass

Mattias Reinass had beaten Csongor Jászai and Andrea Guidi to Ski Division GP2 Moto 1 glory earlier in the day and the Estonian started on pole for the second Moto alongside eight rivals.

Jászai made a strong start, Matteo Valente took a tumble but it was Reinass who led through the opening lap from Jászai, Guidi, Marlon Tiik, Jerry Olin and Andreas Reiter. There were no changes in the running order within the top six until Olin passed Tiik to gain fourth place.

Reinass delivered a measured performance over the remaining laps to win a second successive Moto by a flattering 23.483 seconds and take a six-point lead over Jászai into a final Moto showdown on Sunday. Guidi stayed in title contention with third place and Tiik, Reiter and Olin rounding off the top six. Paolo Petronelli fell near the end and finished eighth sandwiched between Lisa Caussin Battaglia and Valente.

Mattias Siimann storms to Moto 2 win in Runabout GP2

Estonian Mattias Siimann got the better of Pierpaolo Terreo and Alessandro Fracasso in the first of the Runabout GP2 Motos and had a favourable start position for Moto 2 with Petr Dryjak and Ruben Jimenez Riquelme holding fourth and fifth in the rankings. Lithuanian Egidijus Kirilevicius was a non-starter.

Fracasso made a useful start to the 20-minute Moto and moved into the lead from Dryjak, Siimann, Riquelme and Tom Claerhout. The leading quintet held their positions through four laps and Fracasso’s lead was 10.995sec with 10 minutes plus one lap to run.

Dryjak and Siimann became locked in a gripping tussle for second place heading into the last five minutes and the Czech managed to fend off the challenge initially. Fracasso’s lead then dropped to 2.580sec when Siimann overtook Dryjak on lap nine and began to close in on the leader.

Siimann then overtook the Italian to grab the advantage and went on to reach the chequered flag 4.956 seconds ahead. Fracasso, Dryjak, Riquelme and Robin Laforge filled the rest of the top five after Claerhout lost time near the end. The Estonian’s victory means he takes an eight-point World Championship lead into the final Moto.