MEDIA INFORMATION
2025 UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship
MOTO 1 SUCCESSES FOR JAKOPANEC, CALMELS AND GURKŠNYS IN SARDINIA
Friday, October 17: Dorijan Jakopanec, Baptiste Calmels and Grantas Gurkšnys won their opening Motos in the Ski GP3, Ski GP4 and Runabout GP4 categories at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy in Olbia late on Friday afternoon.
Opening Moto success in Ski GP3 for Jakopanec
Dorijan Jakopanec lined up ahead of Csongor Jäszai, Manuel Leite and Michael van Reybroeck at the start of the first Ski GP3 Moto in a setting sun in Olbia.
The Croat made his advantage count and stayed clear of Leite and Jäszai through the opening exchanges to carve out a nine-second lead heading into lap four.
By the halfway point, Jakopanec had increased his advantage to over 15 seconds and he held on to confirm the win by 24.746 seconds from Jäszai with Leite in third. Dag Martin Drange, Gabor Szabo and Gergo Simon rounded off the finishers after Alexandre Bourgeois failed to complete the opening lap. Michael Van Reybroek had already been disqualified after qualifying.
Calmels wins opening Ski GP4 Moto from pole
Pole gave Baptiste Calmels a perfect starting position for the first of the Ski GP4 Motos. The Frenchman stayed ahead of Mathys Meziere and Ander-Hubert Lauri from the green flag, as the trio began to pull away from Daniils Potrivailo, Mansour Abuljadayel and Markus Erlach.
Calmels held his nerve and stayed clear of trouble to win the eight-lap Moto by 6.702 seconds from Lauri with Potrivailo rounding off the podium places. Abuljadayel, Erlach, Alberts Cupriks, Meziere, Juraj Jadanec, Massimo Cannizzo and Lino Brusadin trailed in their wake. Meziere lost out on a potential second place after receiving a one-lap penalty for missing a buoy.
Gurkšnys wins opening Runabout GP4 Moto in fading light
Lithuanian racer Grantas Gurkšnys made a strong start from pole to lead the first Runabout GP4 Moto and he began to edge away from Karol Puzelevic. Only 20 of the 23 entrants took the start in fading light, as Davide Pontecorvo and Alessandro Prats Palau settled into third and fourth ahead of Henri Koppas and Arti Mölter.
Gurkšnys kept his cool as the light faded to secure an impressive 2.206-second win from Puzelevic with Pontecorvo holding off Prats Palau to round off the podium places. The Estonian trio of Koppas, Mölter and Rihard Leinsalu followed close behind. Francesco Bassenghi was docked two laps for course cutting, Jakob Wolfsmeier was penalised by four laps for a similar offence and Jurica Marovic was disqualified for racing in the wrong direction.
As the light faded, Roberto Mariani got the better of Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla to earn pole position for the first of the Freestyle Motos. He scored 208 points on the judges cards to Al-Mulla’s 202. Massimo Accumolo and Paulo Nuñes were third and fourth.
The opening Motos for Runabout GP4 Ladies, Ski GP2, Runabout GP2, Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski GP1 kickstart Saturday morning’s action before a free practice session for Runabout GP1 wraps up the morning’s timetable.
Ends