MEDIA INFORMATION
2025 UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship
URLO, REINASS, PONTECORVO, YPRAUS AND BOSSCHE ON TOP IN OPENING MOTOS IN OLBIA
Saturday, October 18: Five of the remaining opening Motos in the respective ski classes took place at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy in Olbia on Saturday morning.
Arianna Urlo got the better of her rivals to secure victory in the Runabout GP4 Ladies class, Mattias Reinass topped the standings in Ski GP2 and Davide Pontecorvo took the honours in Runabout GP2.
Jasmiin Ypraus led the opening Ski Ladies GP1 Moto from start-to-finish, despite a late spin, and Quinten Bossche earned the maximum 25 points for winning the first of the Ski GP1 Motos from pole position.
Opening Runabout GP4 Ladies glory for Urlo
Cyrielle Bramm lined up on pole for the first of the Runabout GP4 Ladies Motos ahead of Arianna Urlo, Luisa Beja, Nikola Dryjakova, Nicole Cadei and Aurora Filiberti.
Urlo was in top form at the start of the day’s action and the Italian surged into the lead. By lap five, she had a 6.117-second advantage over Beja with the pole-sitting Bramm down in third. Filiberti and Astra Gurkšnytė were locked in a tussle for fourth ahead of Katriin Nilbe and Dryjakova.
Urlo held on to win the Moto by 4.295 seconds with Beja and Bramm filling the other podium places. Filiberti, Gurkšnytė and Nilbe were fourth, fifth and sixth with the defending European champion Dryjakova pushed down to seventh ahead of Carmen Roosmaa, Michelle Dimov and Katarina Sepp.
Reinass in control in first Ski GP2 Moto
Mattias Reinass was hopeful that pole would give him the edge over his rivals for the opening Ski GP2 Moto. Fellow Estonian Karl-Joosep Steinberg and Hungary’s Csongor Jäszai were his closest challengers at the start with Robin Ortner, Andy Trasmondi, Lukas Glanninger, Gianfranco Oliveri and Alessio Ascione lining up behind.
Reinass kept his cool and maintained a slender lead over the charging Jäszai. By lap four, the gap between them was just over three seconds but the Estonian was able to manage his pace to the chequered flag to record a useful win by 4.114 seconds. Steinberg rounded off the podium finishers ahead of Ortner and the Italian duo of Trasmondi and Oliveri.
Glanninger was seventh, despite a two-lap penalty for course cutting. Ascione was disqualified for running the wrong way on the course.
Pontecorvo nails the opening win in Runabout GP2
Alessandro Fracasso had pole from Davide Pontecorvo for the first of the Runabout GP2 heats but Pontecorvo stole a march on his Italian rival to snatch the lead with Pierpaolo Terreo moving up to second. Fracasso then regained second place on the next lap and Terreo also slipped behind a hard-charging Domantas Vaznys. Karl Keskula was not among the 16 starters.
Pontecorvo kept the challenge from Terreo at bay to reach the chequered flag 1.9432 seconds in front of Siimann who passed Terreo near the finish to snatch second. Vaznys moved up to fourth ahead of Fracasso, Abdullah Al-Fadhel, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme and Antonio Pontecorvo. Manuel Reggiani and Davide di Maio rounded off the top 10.
Guiseppe Risolo was docked two laps for missing a buoy and both Patrick Moora and Stefano Castronovo did the same and lost one lap. Michele Marras was penalised two laps for course cutting.
World Champion Ypraus takes first Ski Ladies GP1 Moto
World Champion Jasmiin Ypraus needed to make her pole position count against fierce opposition in the opening Ski Ladies GP1 Moto. The Estonian lined up ahead of the in-form Estelle Poret and Benedicte Drange and she held off her rivals to take the hole shot and stay clear through the opening laps.
Heloise Delcluze held fourth from Virginie Morlaes, Naomi Benini, Sofie Borgström, Siiri Salonen, Lou Dardillat and Joana Graça. Janina Johansson held 11th but current European champion Jessica Chavanne was a non-starter with ongoing technical issues. The race was yellow-flagged when Benini took a tumble with less than two minutes to go and Ypraus held on to win the Moto by 1.5 seconds from Drange, despite spinning dramatically on her final lap.
Poret, Delcluze, Morlaes and Salonen rounded off the top six, although Salonen overcame a 40-second penalty for a jump start. Benini eventually finished 10th.
Ypraus said: “It was a tight race. I tried to play a little bit safe but that was not a good idea. Mistakes can come. The last spilt in traffic with the white water it is a little bit more slippery. I made it more interesting for the people to watch! I tried to hold on and I am happy. We have some speed.”
Bossche wins first Ski GP1 from pole
Defending World Champion Quinten Bossche had pole from Matteo Benini and Jéremy Poret for the first of the Ski GP1 Motos with 24 riders lining up on three separate starting grids. Bossche took the hole shot from Poret, series leader Oliver Koch Hansen,
Anthony Beernaut, Mickael Poret and Yoni Hamelin. Felix Helgesen and Eddy Godon were non-starters but Axel Courtois joined the fray at the rear of the field.
Bossche began to pull clear of Jéremy Poret, Koch Hansen and Mickael Poret and there was no stopping the flying Belgian. He stayed clear of trouble in the traffic to win the Moto by 24.906 seconds. Koch Hansen managed to pass Jéremy Poret to take second place and Mickael Poret rounded off the top four with Kevin Reiterer and Toshi O’Hara in fifth and sixth. Reiterer actually climbed up from 22nd position at the start of the Moto.
Beernaut, Soshi Sato, Maxence Russel and Morgan Poret filled the remaining places in the top 10 after Hamelin dropped out of contention and finished 11th. Benjamin Scharff climbed to 12th.
Bossche said: “Honestly, it feels a little bit sour. We left many points back in Indonesia. They way I feel today is that I could be in the lead of the World Championship. It’s a little bit sour. What can I say? Hole shotting and winning the Moto by such a margin is unheard of, so I am extremely happy. The boat is working well and I am extremely fit. The only thing I can do from now on is to gather as many points as possible.”
A further free practice session for the Runabout GP1 riders rounded off the morning’s action in Olbia.
Ends