MEDIA INFORMATION
2025 UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES FOR JÄSZAI, CALMELS, PUZELEVIC, URLO, REINASS AND SIIMANN IN SARDINIA
Sunday, October 19: Csongor Jäszai, Baptiste Calmels, Karol Puzelevic, Arianna Urlo, Mattias Reinass and Mattias Siimann claimed World Championship and Grand Prix titles in their respective Ski GP3, Ski GP4, Runabout GP4, Runabout GP4 Ladies, Ski GP2 and Runabout GP2 categories at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy on Sunday.
Jäszai earns Ski GP3 World Championship title
With the Ski GP3 World Championship decided over just three Motos in Sardinia, Csongor Jäszai and Dorijan Jakopanec lined up at the start of the final heat tied on 47 points apiece with Manuel Leite seven points behind in third. The two leading protagonists had taken a win apiece on Friday and Saturday but Jäszai had pole for the final showdown.
Jäszai took the hole shot from his title rival, Dag Martin Drange, Leite, Gabor Szabo, Alexandre Bourgeois and Gergo Simon. The Hungarian was able to eke out a two-second gap through the opening lap and held off the constant pressure from his Croatian rival to take the chequered flag 4.278 seconds ahead to win the Grand Prix and the World Championship title.
A distant Leite rounded off the podium places after Drange slipped down the field to finish sixth behind Szabo and Simon. Bourgeois withdrew after one lap.
Calmels seals Ski GP4 world title; Moto 3 win for Erlach
Baptiste Calmels lined up on pole for the last of the Ski GP4 Motos with a six-point lead over the young Estonian Ander-Hubert Lauri. Markus Erlach and Daniils Potrivailo were tied for third, albeit 14 points behind the leading Frenchman.
Erlach snatched the hole shot from Lauri, Potrivailo and Mansour Abuljadayel but Calmels was down in fifth with it all to do to seal the world title. Mathys Meziere struggled at the rear of the field after a late start.
Erlach and Lauri began to edge away from their rivals as Calmels realised the seriousness of his situation and began to apply the pressure on Abuljadayel. The Frenchman managed to pass the Saudi youngster to take fourth place and his determination paid dividends when he also passed Potrivailo to grab third and put one hand on the world title.
Erlach held on to take the Moto win by 1.696 seconds and that sealed third place in the Grand Prix and the World Championship. Lauri fended off Calmels to take second place but the final place on the Moto podium was enough for Calmels to take the world title and the Grand Prix win. A distant Alberts Cupriks, Abuljadayel and Juraj Jadanec rounded off the top six in the Moto after Potrivailo hit trouble on lap five and retired. Massimo Cannizzo, Meziere and Lino Brusadin also finished the race.
Puzelevic takes Runabout GP4 world title with Moto 3 win
The Lithuanian duo of Grantas Gurkšnys and Karol Puzelevic lined up for their Runabout GP4 showdown tied on 47 points apiece with a winner-takes-all scenario facing them. Alessandro Prats Palau held third, nine points behind the leading duo, with Davide Pontecorvo and Henri Koppas also in contention for the podium.
Puzelevic snatched the hole shot from the rolling start and his title rival settled into second ahead of Prats Palau, Koppas, Erikas Butkus and Arti Mölter. Pontecorvo was not among the 19 starters.
Rihard Leinsalu climbed to seventh as Puzelevic edged into a four-second advantage over Gurkšnys with nine minutes of the Moto remaining.
There was no stopping the Lithuanian and he managed to win the Moto in emphatic style by 48.315 seconds to secure the world title. Gurkšnys hit trouble on the last lap and gifted second place to Prats Palau as the duo rounded off the overall podium places. The Baltic quintet of Koppas, Butkus, Mölter, Gurkšnys and Leinsalu finished the Moto in third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. Juliusz Roman pulled out after three laps.
Urlo confirms Runabout GP4 Ladies world title
Rome-based Arianna Urlo lined up at the start of the last of the Runabout GP4 Ladies Motos with a seven-point cushion over last year’s World Champion Cyrielle Bramm and a 10-point lead over Luisa Beja. Aurora Filiberti had been handed a late penalty on Sunday morning that cost her seven of the 18 points she had originally earned in Moto 1 and the Italian slipped to fourth in the standings as 13 girls took the start of Moto 3.
Urlo snatched the hole shot to snatch the lead from Filiberti, Bramm, Katriin Nilbe, Astra Gurkšnytė, Nikola Dryjakova, Beja and Michelle Dimov. Gurkšnytė passed Nilbe to take fourth but the leading two Italians began to edge away from Bramm. Beja lost her place in the running order and slipped to 11th.
Urlo was able to hold off Filiberti to the chequered flag to seal a 2.798-second victory and the World Championship title on home waters. Bramm came home in third to confirm second place in the title race and Filiberti rounded off the Grand Prix and championship podium. Gurkšnytė, Nilbe and Dryjakova were fourth, fifth and sixth in the Moto with Dimov, Ilaria Vanni, last year’s championship runner-up Annemarie Oiemets (nee Randla) and Katarina Sepp rounding off the top 10.
Reinass wins second successive Ski GP2 World Championship title
Mattias Reinass lined up for the final Ski GP2 showdown with an eight-point cushion over a tying Csongor Jäszai and Karl-Joosep Steinberg. Robin Ortner retained a slim chance of claiming a podium finish to the season in fourth.
Reinass fended off Steinberg, Jäszai and Ortner to take the hole shot and the Estonian turned on the gas to try and make a gap between himself and his title rivals. The leading quartet maintained their positions into lap two but Reinass had increased his advantage to 2.529 seconds into lap three.
The Estonian managed to hold on to the chequered flag to confirm the Moto win by 1.683 seconds and take the Grand Prix win and the World Championship title for the second successive year. Steinberg held off Jäszai to take second overall in the standings and Ortner finished fourth. Andy Trasmondi, Gianfranco Oliveri, Lukas Glanninger rounded off the Moto finishers. Alessio Ascione retired after four laps.
Siimann retains his Runabout GP2 world title in sensational style
Defending champion Mattias Siimann and Davide Pontecorvo were tied on 47 points apiece at the start of the third Runabout GP2 Moto. Pontecorvo had sat out the last of the Runabout GP4 Motos to concentrate in his title push. Alessandro Fracasso and Domantas Vaznys were tied for third, 11 points behind the leading duo.
Fracasso snatched the early advantage and took the hole shot ahead of Pontecorvo, Pierpaolo Terreo, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme, Vaznys and Siimann. Abdullah Al-Fadhel and Karl Keskula were non-starters and Manuel Reggiani pulled out after one lap.
Fracasso was on a mission and the Italian stormed into a seven-second advantage over Pontecorvo but his rival knew that second place would be sufficient to take the world title with Siimann languishing down in sixth. But Siimann was on a charge and the Estonian passed both Vaznys and Jimenez Riquelme in a rapid-fire spurt and began to apply the pressure on third-placed Terreo in his desperate bid to catch Pontecorvo.
All attention focused on the battle raging behind Pontecorvo and Siimann. The Estonian managed to pass Terreo with nine minutes on the clock and closed to within three seconds of Pontecorvo. He continued to reel in the Italian and the two became embroiled in a pulsating duel for the world title over the closing laps. Siimann’s pressure told on lap nine and he managed to pass the Italian to claim second place. There was no stopping the Estonian and he managed to catch and pass Fracasso on the final lap to win the Grand Prix and retain his world title in stunning fashion with the Moto win.
Fracasso duly finished third in the World Championship standings behind Siimann and Pontecorvo. Terreo was fourth in the Moto behind Fracasso and Pontecorvo and ahead of Jimenez Riquelme, Vaznys and Antonio Pontecorvo.
Ends