Saturday, November 16: Jessica Chavanne, Kevin Reiterer, Samuel Johansson and Rashid Al-Mulla earned pole positions for the opening Motos in their respective Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1, Runabout GP1 and Freestyle categories at the Grand Prix of Lake Toba, Indonesia on Saturday morning.
This year’s UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship concludes tomorrow afternoon and each of the four racing disciplines are still at stake at the sensational race venue on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Ski Ladies GP1 pole position for Chavanne
Pole position for the 11 Ski Ladies entrants was finalised in just one 15-minute qualifying session after the girls voted to scrap the Q2 stint on Saturday morning. Tropical rain and low-lying cloud had closed in after the free practice session but had abated somewhat when the pole session began.
World Champion Jessica Chavanne laid down the early gauntlet with a run of 1min 47.463sec and that lap stood as the benchmark through the opening six minutes of the session until Estonia’s Jasmiin Ypraus ran a 1min 46.486sec to snatch the lead. European Champion Benedicte Drange then ran even quicker with a 1min 46.338sec, only for Chavanne to regain the advantage with a stunning run of 1min 43.942sec flier.
That lap remained unbeatable for the rest of the session where Ypraus, Drange, Sweden’s Sofie Borgström and Emma-Nellie Ortendahl, French girl Virginie Morlaes, Portugal’s Joana Graca, Janina Johansson, Monaco-based Lisa Caussin Battaglia and Naomi Benini rounded off the qualifiers. World Championship contender Estelle Poret is nursing a leg injury and was a non-starter.
Chavanne said: “I am so happy because it is my first pole position in the World Championship. The track is really technical and physical. It is really interesting.”
Ypraus topped the times in qualifying for the evening’s Parallel Slalom competition. Drange and Borgström were second and third of the eight riders who took part.
Pole in Ski Division GP1 for Reiterer
Ski Division GP1 qualifying was split into two sessions in improving weather conditions with the fastest 10 riders from the opening 15-minute stint of 22 riders making it through to Q2. Jérémy Poret topped the times in Q1 with a run of 1min 43.331sec but the likes of Mads Koch Hansen, Matteo Benini and Alec Enderli were among the riders to miss out on Q2.
Q2 ran for 10 minutes and Axel Courtois posted the opening target lap of 1min 42.656sec but the Poret brothers ran quicker almost immediately and then Kevin Reiterer hit the front with a 1min 38.950sec flier. Valentin Dardillat slotted into second but championship leader Quinten Bossche was yet to post a competitive time and Alex Barret didn’t start until the last two minutes.
Bossche’s opener moved him up to sixth but Reiterer’s lap was still the target with less than three minutes to run. The Austrian held on to claim pole from Dardillat, Morgan, Mickael and Jérémy Poret and Bossche. Courtois, Anthony Beernaut, Oliver Koch Hansen and Barret rounded off the top 10 qualifiers.
Reiterer said: “A new location and a new track. With the altitude, it’s a bit more tiring than usual. It’s a beautiful place. Hopefully we can have some fun and put on a good show.”
Dag Martin Drange topped the times for the evening’s Parallel Slalom competition. Sixteen of the riders posted qualifying times and Mickael and Morgan Poret were second and third.
Series leader Johansson grabs Runabout GP1 pole
Runabout GP1 qualifying was also split into two sessions with seven of the 17 riders eliminated in the 15-minute Q1 stint. World Champion François Medori posted an early target time of 1min 32.709sec but that was eclipsed by both György Kasza and Jérémy Perez. Neither Isahei Hajime nor Huang Rui started the session after their endurance exploits over the previous three days.
The three front-running riders safely made it into Q2 along with series leader Samuel Johansson but Anthony Radetic, Johan Johansson, Mario Lamy and Chen Shan were among the group of seven who failed to reach Q2.
Medori and Kasza posted fast early laps to top the times but Johansson hit the front with a 1min 27.399sec run with six minutes remaining on the clock. That time gave the Swede pole position for the opening Moto with Medori, Kasza, Perez and Rasmus Koch Hansen filling the top five places. Ruben Jimenez Riquelme, Martin Doulik Junior, Linus Lindberg, Lino Araújo and Andrzej Wisniewski rounded off the top 10 qualifiers.
Freestyle pole for Rashid Al-Mulla
Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla impressed the judges with his flair, a diverse range of somersaults, back flips, fountains, spins and his general on-water acrobatic programme to claim pole position for the opening Freestyle Moto on Saturday evening. The Emirati earned 81 points to finish seven ahead of Italian world champion Roberto Mariani Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes and Moroccan Yassine Fadli qualified in third and fourth as rainy conditions returned to the Pangururan area.