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Saturday, October 17: After a harsh wind created choppy conditions during yesterday’s qualifying, the Sardinian sea was flat and serene for the opening Moto of the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy. Olbia’s now-familiar course witnessed tight overtakes and dominant performances throughout a packed morning of racing that will decide who leaves Italy as 2026 World Champion, and who must make do with fighting another year. 

Runabout GP1

Current World Champion Francois Medori kept his hopes of retaining his title alive after a flying start to Moto 1, with the Frenchman taking the holeshot after a masterful performance on the outside split. Jeremy Perez trailed Medori on the split, slotting into second place, as current Championship leader Gyorgy Kasza lost his pole position advantage, dropping to fourth behind Robin Laforge by the first lap.

But Kasza channeled the pace that saw him claim the pole and win all three Motos in Shanghai, overtaking Laforge soon after they emerged from the splits and then hunting down Perez in second place, cutting down the gap between them to 2.389 seconds after two laps and then 1.585 seconds after three laps. However, Kasza’s hard work was not to be the undoing of Perez, whose own bike was to blame for his downfall as it came to a stop due to mechanical issues whilst he faced down lapped traffic. That ended Perez’s race, and amidst the chaos, Samuel Johansson snuck into second place, keeping Kasza in third place even with Perez out.

It took Kasza just one lap to overtake Johansson, but disaster struck seconds later, as Kasza slowed with mechanical issues of his own, allowing Johansson to retake second place halfway into the race. By that point, Medori had a solid lead of 10.282 seconds, with Johansson trailing him, and Laforge back in third place as a stuttering Kasza continued his descent down the standings. Unlike Perez, Kasza was able to remain in the race, but his slowing bike left him open for successive overtakes. As Medori waved to the crowd whilst crossing the finish line, knowing Johansson was an unthreatening distance behind, Kasza fell down to tenth place by the end of the race, leaving the battle for the Championship wide open as Medori heads into Moto 2 three points ahead of Kasza. 

Ski GP1

Quinten Bossche has had a perfect 2026 so far, winning all of his Motos in the European Championship to cruise to that title, and continuing his winning form in the World Championship, winning all his Motos in the season’s opening round in Shanghai. He showed no signs of slowing down in Olbia, easily taking the holeshot and then once again cruising at the front from the start, building up a lead throughout the race that already surpassed ten seconds by the third lap, and crossing the finish line with another huge lead, this time of 53.716 seconds.

Alec Enderli came closest to Bossche, holding onto his second place position throughout the race to secure 22 points. The strongest starts to the race came from Yoni Hamelin and Jeremy Poret. Hamelin moved up from eleventh to sixth place off the start, but the Belgian was unable to hold on, gradually dropping positions throughout the race to finish in eighteenth. Meanwhile Jeremy Poret, who missed qualifying due to engine issues and lined up at the back, kept his initial momentum, taking positions throughout the Moto to finish in seventh place.

Ski Ladies GP1

Benedicte Drange kept her title hopes alive after an underwhelming fourth-place finish in Shanghai, taking the holeshot in Olbia’s Moto 1 ahead of Championship leader Jessica Chavanne, who emerged from the first splits shortly behind her. Further down the pack, Aquabike debutant Mami Kaneko had a strong start to her first ever Moto 1, moving up from her eleventh place start into seventh place, two positions ahead of Emy Garcia, started in third but dropped down to ninth after a slow start. Current World Champion Estelle Poret slotted into fourth behind Lou Dardillat, but overtook her on the third lap to move into the podium places.

Chavanne remained hot on Drange’s tail throughout the race, but could not find the pace to execute an overtake, as Drange finished the Moto with a 4.812 second lead. Poret kept her chances of retaining her title alive with a third place finish, meaning she goes into Moto 2 trailing Championship leader Chavanne by twelve points.

Single-event categories

Jerry Olin squandered his Ski GP2 pole position after a slow start followed by a missed demarcation buoy – for which he incurred a two lap penalty – saw him fall back into eighth place, allowing last year’s runner-up in Olbia Karl Joosep Steinberg to take the holeshot. With Olin out of the picture, Steinberg could afford to ride cautiously and confidently, as he built up his lead throughout the race to finish with a dominant gap of 30.679 seconds and the full 25 points. Grantas Gurksnys held onto his pole position to emerge first from the opening lap of Ski GP3, emerging 3.221 seconds ahead of second place Jose Vainio. Gurksnys coolly led for the rest of the race, slowly building up a lead to cross the finish line 8.601 seconds ahead of Vainio. In Ski GP4, Csongor Jászai started from pole, narrowly edged ahead for the first turn and then took the outside split which built up his lead over a chasing Dorijan Jakopanec. From there, the current European Champion was unassailable, as he gradually built up a lead throughout the race to win the Moto by 15.785 seconds.

A hectic start to Runabout GP2 saw Vaznys Domantas lose his pole position advantage to emerge from the first lap in fourth, with Karol Puzelevic taking the holeshot by a slim margin over last year’s winner in Olbia Mattias Siimann. But Puzelevic was soon made to do a stop-and-go on the fifth lap for an infraction at the start, meaning Siimann took the lead as Puzelevic dropped into fifth place. Following his penalty, Puzelevic was never able to move back into challenging for the race win, finishing in fourth place, whereas Siimann took full advantage of his lead, which extended to 25.525 seconds by the end of the race, to take another win in Olbia.

A strong start from pole starter Annemarie Oiemets meant she maintained her lead in Runabout Ladies GP4, as her main challenger Aurora Filiberti had a poor start and fell back from second place to fourth in the opening lap. Filiberti immediately started pushing to retake her position, recording the race’s fastest lap of 1:38.052 seconds on her second lap around the course. But Filiberti had to face off with third placed Alizée Vanden-Blecken first, and that battle lasted the duration of the race, with Filiberti only managing to secure the overtake on the last lap to take third place, with Kimily Lepp taking second place, and Oiemets leading from start to finish to take first place.