Wednesday, July 24: Portugal’s Lino Araújo, Slobodan Sobic and Pierre-Marie Vincentelli of France claimed unofficial pole positions in their respective UIM-ABP European Endurance Championship GP1, GP2, and GP3 categories on the first afternoon of the Grand Prix of Vichy on the Allier River on Wednesday.

Sixteen riders registered for the 2024 round on Wednesday morning, with three competing in GP3, three in GP2, nine in GP1 and four not designated in the early results. The three categories were merged for the opening pole session, which was switched to mid-afternoon by O’Sports and race officials at Aquabike Promotion. Only 15 riders took part in the pole stint.

Araújo got the better of the French defending UIM-ABP World Runabout GP1 champion François Medori in the early exchanges in the pole session and leapt to the top of the standings with a best run of 1min 31.84sec. That lap time held through the stint and the Portuguese earned pole position. Spaniard Ruben Jimenez Riquelme of Spain slotted into third amongst the Runabout GP1 entrants with Sweden’s Johan Johansson in fourth.

Vincentelli claimed pole in Runabout GP3 on his Kawasaki, while Sobic was quicker than Michele Cadei and Frenchman Sammy Maysonnave in GP2.

Tomorrow, (Thursday) sees a host of free practice sessions for the second round of the UIM-ABP European Continental Aquabike Championship, the first of the endurance Motos and pole position stints for Ski Division GP2 and Runabout GP4 with Freestyle free practice rounding off the day’s action.