Friday, September 27: Belgian rider Robin Laforge and Norway’s Benedicte Drange earned pole positions in the Runabout GP2 and Ski Ladies GP1 categories after a pair of frenetic qualifying sessions in tricky conditions at Portugal’s Grand Prix of Mira on Thursday afternoon.

Laforge earns Runabout GP2 pole position

Pierre-François Savelli arrived in Mira with an 18-point lead over Petr Dryjak after two rounds of the Runabout GP2 European Championship. They were among 10 Sea-Doo riders who lined up for a free practice session and qualifying when on-water action resumed after a lunch break in Portugal. Adrian Herias, Justin Patzner, Alexandre Girel, Janina Johansson, Tom Claerhout, Fábio Costa, André Correia and Robin Laforge are also chasing Grand Prix glory this weekend.

Laforge topped the practice times from Savelli but claiming pole was far more important to the likes of Dryjak. Laforge remained the man to beat in qualifying and a fifth lap of 1min 10.30sec gave the Belgian pole position by 1.34 seconds from Dryjak, with Savelli, Costa and Claerhout rounding off the top five.

Drange sets the pace with pole in Ski Ladies GP1

In this weekend the door is firmly open for Norway’s Benedicte Drange to claim the European Ski Ladies GP1 title. She headed into qualifying is second place, 24 points clear of Sofie Borgström and 34 ahead of Naomi Benini. French girl Virginie Morlaes, Finland’s Siiri Salonen and Portugal’s Joana Graça are also competing this weekend.

After Borgström had limped through her opening lap, Drange (1min 20.53sec) set the pace in practice on her Fast Powersports ski. Borgström set the target time of 1min 22.88sec at the start of qualifying but that time was soon surpassed by Drange’s second run of 1min 21.69sec and her third of 1min 20.30sec. That was sufficient to give the Norwegian pole for the opening Moto from Borgström, Salonen, Benini, Graça and Morlaes.

Dardillat fastest but Ski Division GP1 session is cancelled

Morgan Poret and Valentin Dardillat are the runaway leaders in the fight for European Ski Division GP1 honours and they topped a bumper 19-ski field that also included the likes of Morgan’s brother Mickaël, Oliver and Mads Koch Hansen, Alex Courtois, Alec Enderli, Alex Barret and Paul Thomas.

Dardillat topped the practice times with a 1min 24.63sec run but a handful of riders sat out the free practice to prepare for the 15-minute qualifying session. Posting a competitive early time was paramount with such a large field on the race course and Anthony Beernaut was out early to card a target lap of 1min 25.86sec. That was quickly beaten by Enderli, Matteo Benini and Courtois until Dardillat ran a 1min 22.18sec to hit the front on his Spectrum ski.

Title rival Morgan Poret (1min 23.65sec) climbed into second and Dardillat and Morgan Poret then held on to claim pole and second places with Mickaël Poret, Courtois, Felix Helgeson and Oliver Koch Hansen wrapping up the top six qualifying places. But the session was later cancelled because the turn buoys had been shifting in the strong wind and the session will be replayed on Saturday morning after the riders’ briefing.

Practice and qualifying for Runabout GP1 entrants has also been moved to Saturday morning.