Sunday, June 23: Belgian Yoni Hamelin, Estonian racers Mattias Reinass and Karl Keskula, French girl Cyrielle Bramm and Mattias Siimann of Estonia earned World Championship and Grand Prix victories in their respective Ski GP3, Ski GP4, Runabout GP4, Runabout GP4 Ladies and Runabout GP2 categories in blustery conditions at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy on Sunday afternoon. Reinass also claimed the Ski GP2 title.
Victories in the third of the weekend’s Motos at the Sardinian round of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro World Championship fell to Hamelin, Reinass, Ibiza-based Spaniard Alejandro Prats-Palau, Bramm, Hungarian Csongor Jászai and Siimann in the respective categories.
Belgium’s Yoni Hamelin wraps up Ski GP3 title with Moto 3 win
Belgian rider Yoni Hamelin lined up for the final Ski GP3 Moto with a 10-point advantage over fellow countryman Loris Lambert after winning the opening two Motos. Antoine Goethals was a further two points adrift with Croatia’s Dorijan Jakopanec holding a close fourth.
A top 10 finish would give the leading Belgian the Grand Prix victory and the world title but Goethals made a strong rolling start in a gusting wind and settled into the lead from Hamelin, Michael van Reybroek, Lambert, Martin Tiik and Jakopanec. Csongor Jászai was a non-starter.
The quartet of Belgian riders maintained their positions at the front of the field although Goethals and Hamelin began to pull away from their pursuers. But Hamelin managed to overtake Goethals on lap four with just under seven minutes on the clock and he pulled away from then on to seal a third successive Moto win by 5.699 seconds, victory in the Grand Prix and the world Ski GP3 crown. Van Reybroek, Lambert, Jakopanec and Lajos Komonyi finished third, fourth, fifth and sixth with Goethals taking second place from Lambert on the final podium. Martim Marques was a non-finisher.
Ski GP4 Moto 3 win and GP win for Mattias Reinass
Fifteen-year-old Tallinn-based student Ander-Hubert Lauri started the final Ski GP4 Moto from pole with a two-point lead over Yoni Hamelin in the World Championship and a seven-point cushion over Mattias Reinass.
Hungarian racer Markus Erlach made the best start from the pontoon, however, and took the hole shot from Lauri, Baptiste Calmels, Reinass, Hamelin and Jennifer Ménard-Poret. The top six held station through the next lap until Lauri led briefly before making a mistake and Reinass stormed through to snatch the lead when several riders missed turn buoys and Erlach plummeted to fifth. Reinass led from Lauri, Calmels and Hamelin and Ménard-Poret retained sixth.
Reinass held on to the lead but Lauri was forced to take the penalty buoy and slipped back to finish fourth behind Calmels and Hamelin. Reinass eventually passed the chequered flag to snatch the win by 2.105 seconds with Calmels and Hamelin rounding off the podium places. Lauri finished fourth and Ménard-Poret and Erlach were fifth and sixth.
Reinass’s victory was sufficient to earn the Estonian the Grand Prix win and the world title with Hamelin finishing second. Lauri was later disqualified and his demise lifted Calmels into third in the overall Grand Prix. Ménard-Poret and Erlach climbed to fourth and fifth in Moto 3.
Runabout GP4 title for Estonia’s Karl Keskula; Moto 3 win for Prats-Palau
Karl Keskula began the final Moto from pole with a 10-point lead in the Runabout GP4 championship over fellow Estonian Henri Koppas and an 11-point cushion over a tying Arti Molter, defending world champion Alejandro Prats-Palau and Petr Dryjak.
Sixteen racers took the pontoon start and Molter took advantage of a minor mistake by Keskula to snatch second place but Prats-Palau snatched the hole shot and edged clear of the two Estonians, Davide Pontecorvo, Dryjak and Koppas. Bahrain’s Ahmed Al-Hermi was awarded a stop-and-go-penalty further down the field.
The leading group maintained their positions into the closing six minutes and Prats Palau then held on to snatch the Moto win by 2.872 seconds with third place being sufficient for Keskula to wrap up the Grand Prix victory and the world title. Prats-Palau and Moto 3 runner-up Molter rounded off the World Championship and Grand Prix podiums. In Moto 3, Pontecorvo, Dryjak and Maddox Reichardt finished fourth, fifth and sixth.
Runabout GP4 Ladies title and Moto 3 win for Cyrielle Bramm
Annemarie Randla and Cyrielle Bramm were tied for the lead in the Runabout GP4 Ladies World Championship heading into the final Moto with Nicole Cadei a mere point behind in third.
Randla had pole position for the showdown but Bramm made the better start and took the hole shot and the early lead from Michelle Dimov, Randla, Ester Rosin, Cadei and Arianna Urlo. Outgoing World Champion Nikola Dryjakova was down in ninth.
Bramm began to pull away from her 11 rivals and led by 13.132 seconds through lap three, although Randla had passed Dimov to take second place with Rosin, Cadei and Urlo retaining their places in the top six. Randla then began to chip away at Bramm’s lead over the subsequent laps but the French girl held on to claim the Moto win by 4.244 seconds and also earn the Grand Prix win and the Runabout GP4 championship title.
The runner-up spot also netted Randla second in the Grand Prix and Cadei finished third in the title race. Dimov, Cadei, Rosin and Urlo were classified in third, fourth, fifth and sixth in Moto 3 after a frantic late tussle.
Ski GP2 title for Mattias Reinass; Moto 3 win for Csongor Jászai
Less than an hour after winning the Ski GP4 title, pole-sitting Estonian Mattias Reinass took a six-point lead over Hungarian rival Csongor Jászai into the final Ski GP2 Moto. Italian Andrea Guidi began the race 10 points adrift in third.
Jászai stole a march on his rivals and moved into the early lead from Guidi, Reinass, Marlon Tiik, Jerry Olin and Matteo Valente at the front of the nine-bike field. Reinass then passed Guidi to snatch second and began to hunt down the Hungarian leader. Jászai then took a tumble, Reinass took up a penalty buoy and Tiik passed Guidi to snatch third place. But Reinass then made a mistake of his own and slipped back behind Jászai and Tiik into third place with Guidi, Olin and Valente rounding off the top six.
Tiik was not able to hold Reinass off, however, and the champion-elect regained second place with six minutes to run. Jászai held on through the closing stages to secure the Moto win by just 1.033 seconds but second place for Reinass was enough for the Estonian to snatch the Grand Prix win and the world title from the Hungarian. Guidi finished third and did enough to take the final podium place in the Grand Prix.
In Moto 3, Tiik, Olin and Valente finished fourth, fifth and sixth and Andreas Reiter, Lisa Caussin Battaglia and Paulo Petronelli rounded off the finishers.
Moto 3 win confirms Runabout GP2 title for Mattias Siimann
Estonian Mattias Siimann started on pole and headed into the final Runabout GP2 Moto with an eight-point World Championship lead over Italy’s Alessandro Fracasso. Petr Dryjak lined up in a distant third in the standings with Pierpaolo Terreo a point behind him in fourth.
Nineteen racers took the pontoon start for the 20-minute Moto and Dryjak took the hole shot from Siimann, Robin Laforge, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme, Alexis Mihalcea and Fracasso. Terreo was down in eighth through lap one and then climbed above Kamil Fadrowski to snatch seventh on the next tour.
Siimann’s constant pressure paid off on lap five and he snatched the lead from the inside split when Dryjak had to take the penalty buoy. Dryjak slipped back to third behind Laforge and Terreo displaced Fracasso and moved into sixth.
There was no stopping Siimann through the closing laps and the flying Estonian romped to a 12.885-second Moto win to confirm the Grand Prix win and the world Runabout GP2 title. Laforge and Dryjak finished second and third in the Moto and the result meant that Dryjak and Fracasso rounded off the podium places in the Grand Prix with the Italian finishing Moto 3 in seventh behind Riquelme, Mihalcea and Terreo. Igor Tycel, Pierre Savelli and Fadrowski rounded off the Moto top 10.