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Monday, February 17: A dozen girls from eight countries scored points in the Ski Ladies GP1 category of the 2024 UIM-ABP Aquabike Circuit Pro World Championship. The season delivered some fantastic racing across three Grand Prix in Vietnam, Sardinia and Indonesia but Estonia’s Jasmiin Ypraus managed to hold off a ferocious challenge from outgoing champion Jessica Chavanne to claim a second world title in three years.
The season started in late March at a new venue on Thi Nai Bay in the Vietnamese city of Quy Nhơn. Intense heat and humidity pushed a lot of the racing action into a cooler morning timetable where possible. Ypraus made the perfect start to her goal of winning the world title with two Moto wins and a second place to take the laurels at the inaugural Grand Prix of Bình Định-Vietnam with 72 points from a possible 75.
Chavanne pushed her hard in the opening Moto and then won the second heat to set up a grandstand finale. But a cruel engine failure sidelined the French girl in the final heat and Tallinn-based Ypraus, 24, reached the chequered flag to secure the Moto win from Estelle Poret and Emma-Nellie Ortendahl.
Things didn’t go quite according to plan for Ypraus in the summer heat of Olbia in Sardinia at round two. Chavanne made the early running in Moto 1 before slipping into the water and that mistake enabled Poret to snatch the advantage and a tie of the lead in the World Championship. Ypraus was penalised with a trip around the penalty buoy but still managed to forge through and regain second, only to be penalised again along with Benedicte Drange, and that pushed her down to eighth. Chavanne gained points for second place.
Chavanne grabbed the hole shot in Moto 2 and held on to take the maximum 25 points with Poret finishing second and moving into a six-point lead over Ypraus in the hunt for the world title. Ypraus could only manage fifth.
Chavanne had pole for the final Moto of the Sardinian weekend but Ypraus earned the hole shot and edged away from her rivals.
Despite a minor error near the finish, the Estonian grabbed the Moto win but third place for Chavanne was enough to take victory in the Grand Prix. Poret finished fourth, despite running with an ongoing injury, and left the Italian island just one point behind Ypraus in the fight for the World Championship.
Poret’s decision not to attend the final Grand Prix on Indonesia’s volcanic Lake Toba was a major boost for Ypraus with three Motos left to decide the outcome of the World Championship. She finished second best to Chavanne in Moto 1 but hit back with an impressive victory in the second heat to stay firmly on course for a second title.
Ypraus started the last race of the season on pole position with a 12-point lead over Chavanne, as the outcome of the World Championship again went down to the final Moto.
Despite, murky and wet conditions on the world’s largest volcanic lake in Sumatra, Chavanne grabbed the hole shot and held her line throughout the race to snatch victory in the Grand Prix. Second place was enough for Ypraus to clinch the world title, despite a fall near the finish, and second overall in the Grand Prix. Three third places were sufficient for European Champion Benedicte Drange to finish third in Indonesia and in a similar position in the overall championship standings.
Emma-Nellie Ortendahl recovered from a non-finish in the opening Moto in Vietnam to score useful points in the next eight heats on her way to fourth in the championship, the Swede finishing five points clear of Sofie Borgström. Poret was sixth, despite missing the final Grand Prix in Indonesia.
Portugal’s Joana Graca was a model of consistency with nine Moto finishers on her way to seventh and Janina Johansson pipped Naimo Benini to eighth on a final Moto tie-breaker on Lake Toba. American racer River Varner missed the racing in Sumatra in 10th and Monaco-based Lisa Caussin-Battaglia and Virginie Morlaes rounded off the finishers, with the latter not attending the races in Quy Nhơn.