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Saturday, October 3: The second round of the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship Grand Prix of China-Shanghai took place amidst tempestuous conditions that made for challenging races, where the Championship’s more experienced riders were able to thrive and claim Moto 2 wins.
Runabout GP1
Gyorgy Kasza took the holeshot after flying off the starting pontoon, with current World Champion Francois Medori trailing him in second place. A slow start from Jeremy Perez saw him drop from his second place start to fifth by the first lap, as Samuel Johansson took third place and Petr Dryjak fourth. Kasza got straight to work extending his lead over Medori, achieving the race’s best lap of 01:40.154 seconds in his first lap. Meanwhile Dryjak struggled to maintain his strong early pace by the second lap, dropping from fourth place to eighth, allowing Perez to move up into fourth place and begin mounting a challenge for a podium position.
As Kasza was pushing to build his lead, Medori upped his pace, beating Kasza by just under one second on the third lap to reduce the gap between the race leaders to 2.435 seconds going into the fourth lap. But amid the testing choppy conditions, Medori struggled to maintain his pace, as Kasza achieved a fifth lap that was over three seconds faster than Medori’s, thus extending the gap between them to 5.739 seconds going into the sixth lap.
Over the following laps, Kasza and Medori roughly mirrored each other’s pace, meaning the gap between them remained stable and Medori could not get close enough to attempt an overtake. Kasza crossed the line 8.792 seconds ahead of Medori to take another Moto win in Shanghai, with Johansson coming third 70.080 seconds behind Medori, a testament to the completely dominant pace of the two race leaders. Perez never recovered from his poor start, crossing the line in fourth place.
Ski GP1
Quinten Bossche continued his dominant 2026 form in Moto 2, once again leading the race from start to finish. Bossche was first to enter the splits, with Jeremy Poret shortly behind him. Bossche went straight for the outside split, Poret the inside, and third-placed Valentin Dardillat following Bossche into the outside split. Bossche was first out, and Dardillat just edged Poret coming out of the splits to snatch second place. But Poret did not let Dardillat get away, remaining hot on his tail and just 2.422 seconds behind him after the first lap.
As has become his signature, Bossche immediately began building an insurmountable lead which extended to 14.857 seconds after only three laps. Behind him, Poret mounted a challenge to take back second place as Dardillat began to tire amidst the choppy conditions. By the fourth lap, the gap between the two was just 2.100 seconds, and then down to 1.649 seconds the next lap. But Poret too started tiring, and by the sixth lap could no longer maintain his position-chasing pace. This in turn opened the opportunity for Alec Enderli in fourth place to mount a challenge of his own, as the Swiss rider went into the seventh lap 2.783 seconds behind Poret.
However, Enderli’s charge was complicated by constant lapped traffic interfering with his racing line, which made the opportunity for an overtake difficult to find. The battle for the podium places remained close until the very end, as third-placed Poret entered the last lap 1.207 seconds behind Dardillat, and Enderli 2.766 seconds behind Poret. As Bossche crossed the line with another dominant lead, this time of 55.012 seconds, Dardillat upped his pace, achieving a 1:59.047 second last lap compared to Poret’s 2:00.232 seconds, thus guaranteeing Dardillat second place, with Poret remaining in third and Enderli in fourth place.
Ski Ladies GP1
Estelle Poret flew off the start as she tried to repeat her performance from yesterday’s Moto 1 where she led from start to finish, but had to contend with Jessica Chavanne hot on her tail as they went in for the first turn. The two leading French riders then took opposite splits, with Poret taking the inside and Chavanne the more challenging outside split. Joining Poret on the inside split was Jasmiin Ypraus, who quickly made up ground and was tightly trailing Poret into the turns.
Poret was first to emerge from the splits, keeping her in the lead, but the close battle took place behind her for second place, as Ypraus just edged Chavanne to gain a position and move the French former World Champion down into third place. But Chavanne would not stay there for long, as she found a boost of pace over the course of the first lap that saw her overtake both Ypraus and then Poret before going into the splits for the second time in the race. With Chavanne in front, her two closest challengers took different splits, with Poret on the inside and Ypraus on the outside. The two riders emerged from their respective splits side by side, with Ypraus narrowly squeezing into the inside of the first turn coming out of the split, pushing Poret to the outside and almost into the water as she tightly held on to make the turn.
Ypraus’s advantage over Poret was short-lived, however, as she fell into the water the following time she took the splits, costing her valuable time and allowing Poret to take back second place. Up in front, Chavanne was building a considerable lead which extended to 11.917 seconds by the fourth lap. The riders then settled into their positions for the middle portion of the race, with Ypraus facing a late challenge for third place from an energised Emy Garcia, who was just 2.481 seconds behind her with one lap to go. As Chavanne crossed the finish line, Poret managed to cut the deficit to 8.775 seconds as she crossed the line in second. Ypraus held onto third place, having never recovered from her early fall into the water.