MEDIA INFORMATION
2023 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship
MIKAEL PORET – THE 2023 SKI DIVISION GP1 WORLD CHAMPION
Tuesday, December 19: Frenchman Mikael Poret clinched the 2023 Ski Division GP1 World Championship title by winning the third Moto at the Grand Prix of Lake Toba-Indonesia on an event where his younger brother Morgan claimed Grand Prix success.
The 36-year-old, from Niévroz, works in the family manufacturing business and has been competed at the top level of the UIM World Championship for over a decade. Her claimed the title in 2013 and added the Slalom World Championship the following season. After being crowned UIM European Champion in GP2 in 2015, Mikael achieved consistent performances and five top five finishes in the UIM World Championship over the next nine years.
Poret headed into a Lake Toba showdown with rival Oliver Koch Hansen on the back of the Dane amassing 67 points from a third, a second and a win at the three Motos in the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy. Poret had won the opening Moto and then scored points for a fourth and a second and trailed Koch Hansen by two points.
It was the Frenchman’s younger brother Morgan who made the best start in the opening Moto in northern Sumatra, but the race was red-flagged after a couple of minutes for safety reasons. The restart was aborted in heavy rain after a jump-start but it was third time lucky and the Poret brothers moved ahead with Morgan fending off Mikael to claim the win. Second place was sufficient for Mickael Poret to displace Koch Hansen at the top of the rankings.
He lined up at the start of Moto 2 with a five-point advantage over the Dane in a race where early front-runner Alec Enderli was penalised. But Morgan Poret held off Kevin Reiterer to claim the heat win and Koch Hansen reduced Mikael Poret’s series lead with third place.
Mikael, therefore, lined up in the last Moto with a three-point cushion over Koch Hansen. Reiterer and Koch Hansen were a little slow off the start pontoon but the race was red-flagged almost immediately. Dag Martin Drange and Barnabas Szabo failed to make the restart but Morgan Poret was again the form rider and snatched the early advantage from his brother, Reiterer, Oliver Koch Hansen and Enderli.
Mickael Poret managed to overtake his brother and snatch the lead on lap three. The French duo controlled the race thereafter, as the World Champion elect began to pull away from his younger brother to reach the chequered flag 3.409 seconds in front to seal the World Championship by eight points.
Ends
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